Phase behavior and interfacial properties of symmetric polymeric ternary blends A/B/AB

Abstract

In this paper, the phase behavior and interfacial properties of symmetric ternary polymeric blends A/B/AB are studied by dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations. By using the structure factor and nematic order parameter, we carefully characterized the diversified phases and phase transitions, and established the phase diagram of such symmetric ternary blends. It can be generally divided into four regions: disordered phase (DIS) region at high temperature, ordered lamellar phase (LAM) region, bicontinuous microemulsion (BµE) channel and phase-separated phase (2P) region at low temperature with the increase of the total volume fractions of homopolymers Φ H, which shows good accordance with that in previous experimental and theoretical reports. Furthermore, we calculated the elastic constants of 2P and LAM phase, and discussed the transition mechanisms from 2P and LAM to BμE phase, respectively. The results show a direct relevance between the phase transitions and the change of interfacial properties. Finally, we also demonstrate that the BμE channel becomes narrower in lower temperature caused by the temperature dependence of interfacial properties of ternary blends.