Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2018
Publication Title
Entropy
Abstract
We present a mean field model of a gel consisting of P polymers, each of length L and Nz polyfunctional monomers. Each polyfunctional monomer forms z covalent bonds with the 2P bifunctional monomers at the ends of the linear polymers. We find that the entropy dependence on the number of polyfunctional monomers exhibits an abrupt change at Nz = 2P/z due to the saturation of possible crosslinks. This non-analytical dependence of entropy on the number of polyfunctionals generates a first-order phase transition between two gel phases: one poor and the other rich in poly-functional molecules.
Repository Citation
Kaufman, Miron, "Entropy Driven Phase Transition in Polymer Gels: Mean Field Theory" (2018). Physics Faculty Publications. 379.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/sciphysics_facpub/379
DOI
10.3390/e20070501
Version
Publisher's PDF
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Volume
20
Issue
7
Comments
This work was partially supported by the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of Cergy Pontoise under the Paris Seine Initiative for Excellence (“Investissements d’Avenir” ANR-16-IDEX-0008).