Abstract
| - A thermodynamically self-consistent theory has been developed to establish binary phase diagrams for two-crystalline polymer blends by taking into consideration all interactions including amorphous−amorphous,crystal−amorphous, amorphous−crystal, and crystal−crystal interactions. The present theory basically involvescombination of the Flory−Huggins free energy for amorphous−amorphous isotropic mixing and the Landaufree energy of polymer solidification (e.g., crystallization) of the crystalline constituents. The self-consistentsolution via minimization of the free energy of the mixture affords determination of eutectic, peritectic, andazeotrope phase diagrams involving various coexistence regions such as liquid−liquid, liquid−solid, andsolid−solid coexistence regions bound by liquidus and solidus lines. To validate the present theory, the predictedeutectic phase diagrams have been compared with the reported experimental binary phase diagrams of blendssuch as polyethylene fractions as well as polycaprolactone/trioxane mixtures.
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