Eur. Phys. J. E 34, 3 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2011-11003-2

Critical microphase properties of crosslinked polymer blends with quenched random impurities

Laboratoire de Physique des Polymères et Phénomènes Critiques, Faculté des Sciences Ben M’sik, P.O. Box 7955, Casablanca, Morocco

benhamou.mabrouk@gmail.com

Received: 2 June 2010
Accepted: 24 November 2010
Published online: 10 January 2011

Abstract

We extend published works dealing with microphase separation in crosslinked polymer blends to the case where these are surrounded by random impurities. To study their influence on critical microphase properties, from a static and kinetics point of view, we first assume that the (real) disorder caused by impurities is quenched. Second, the replica theory is used to study such critical properties, upon the impurities concentration and their interaction strength. More precisely, we compute the spinodal temperature and structure factor. We find that the spinodal temperature is shifted towards its lower and higher values, for attractive and repulsive impurities, respectively. The obtained expression for the static structure factor suggests that, contrarily to repulsive impurities, the crosslinked mixture scatters better in the presence of attractive ones. Thereafter, the study is extended to kinetics of microphase separation, when the mixture is impregnated by small random impurities. Kinetics is investigated through the growth rate, and in particular, we demonstrate that the latter is increased by the presence of repulsive impurities. This is natural, since these play a stabilizer role. Finally, the discussion is extended to crosslinked polymer blends immersed in a good solvent, which induces drastic changes of the critical microphase properties.