title: Similarity of the signatures of the initial stages of phase separation in metastable and unstable polymer blends.
abstract: Time-resolved small angle neutron scattering was used to probe the initial stages of liquid-liquid phase separation in both critical and off-critical binary polymer blends, and the critical (q(c)) and most probable (q(m)) wave vectors were identified for several quench depths. For the critical blend, the Cahn-Hilliard-Cook theory provides a framework for analyzing the data and explains the observed decrease in q(m) with time. For the off-critical blend, q(m) is independent of quench time, regardless of whether the quench is metastable or unstable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Amish J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Rappl
authors.forename: Nitash P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Balsara