title: Phase separation with multiple length scales in polymer mixtures induced by autocatalytic reactions.
abstract: A ternary polymer blend with two components photo-cross-linked independently in its miscible region undergoes phase separation, exhibiting morphology with multiple length scales. Contrary to the case of thermally induced phase separation, the morphology exhibits a unimodal-->multimodal transition. It is shown that these multiple length scales are caused by the inhomogeneous freezing kinetics of the cross-linking process. This inhomogeneity arises from the autocatalytic feedback driven by the couplings between concentration fluctuations and the photo-cross-linking reactions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Matsugasaki, Kyoto 606-8585, Japan. qui@ipc.kit.ac.jp
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tran-Cong
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishikawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jinnai