TY  - JOUR
AU  - Milchev, Andrey
AU  - Egorov, Sergei A.
AU  - Midya, Jiarul
AU  - Binder, Kurt
AU  - Nikoubashman, Arash
TI  - Blends of Semiflexible Polymers: Interplay of Nematic Order and Phase Separation
JO  - Polymers
VL  - 13
IS  - 14
SN  - 2073-4360
CY  - Basel
PB  - MDPI
M1  - FZJ-2021-06143
SP  - 2270
PY  - 2021
AB  - Mixtures of semiflexible polymers with a mismatch in either their persistence lengths or their contour lengths are studied by Density Functional Theory and Molecular Dynamics simulation. Considering lyotropic solutions under good solvent conditions, the mole fraction and pressure is systematically varied for several cases of bending stiffness κ (the normalized persistence length) and chain length N. For binary mixtures with different chain length (i.e., NA=16, NB=32 or 64) but the same stiffness, isotropic-nematic phase coexistence is studied. For mixtures with the same chain length (N=32) and large stiffness disparity (κB/κA=4.9 to 8), both isotropic-nematic and nematic-nematic unmixing occur. It is found that the phase diagrams may exhibit a triple point or a nematic-nematic critical point, and that coexisting phases differ appreciably in their monomer densities. The properties of the two types of chains (nematic order parameters, chain radii, etc.) in the various phases are studied in detail, and predictions on the (anisotropic) critical behavior near the critical point of nematic-nematic unmixing are made
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:34301028
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000676974600001
DO  - DOI:10.3390/polym13142270
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/904573
ER  -