Local friction in polyolefin blends.
Processes on different length scales affect the dynamics of chain molecules. The friction experienced by a short chain segment depends on both small-scale chain properties and on the local environment of the segment. As a consequence, the (monomeric) friction coefficients of the two components of a binary polymer blend will, in general, differ from each other and from the friction coefficients of the corresponding melts. In this work, we investigate local friction in polyolefin blends with the aid of a small-scale simulation approach. The polymer chains, in united atom representation, are assumed to occupy the sites of a partially filled simple cubic lattice. The simulation focuses on short chain sections with straight backbones and enumerates all possible binary contacts and relative movements of such sections. By evaluating the exact enumeration results in conjunction with equations of state for the blends, we are able to make predictions about the variation of the friction coefficients with local chain architecture and thermodynamic state (temperature, pressure, and composition). We calculate relative values of friction coefficients at temperatures well above the glass transition for blends of PEP, an alternating copolymer of polyethylene and polypropylene, with polyethylene and polyisobutylene and for blends of polyethylene and atactic polypropylene. We also investigate a blend of PEP with head-to-head polypropylene and compare our results with experimental data.
Luettmer-Strathmann
Jutta
J
Department of Physics, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio 44325-4001, USA. jutta@physics.uakron.edu