Phase-separated structures

Although polymorphism in plastic crystals is less frequent than in liquid crystals, it does exist. Tetrakis(methylmercapto)methane, C(SCH3)4, for example, has four crystal modifications of which the three high temperature forms have a high degree of plasticity 100). Also, it has been observed that plastic crystals are frequently mutually soluble 16b), a consequence of the less restrictive crystal structures. Phase separation of these solutions occurs often on transition to the fully ordered crystal, giving rise to quite complicated phase diagrams102). 

In catalytic in situ polymerization of P(Ac) composites, which parameters do you feel are responsible for the production of homogeneous composites, as in the case of the P(Ac)/PVB composites of Sariciftci et al. [189], as against the poorly structured, phase-separated PB/P(Ac) composites of Rubner et al. [346], both described in this chapter ... 

The time-dependent structure factor S k,t), which is proportional to the intensity I k,t) measured in an elastic scattering experiment, is a measure of the strength of the spatial correlations in the ordering system with wavenumber k at time t. It exliibits a peak whose position is inversely proportional to the average domain size. As the system phase separates (orders) the peak moves towards increasingly smaller wavenumbers (see figure A3.3.3. 

Figure B3.6.4. Illustration of tliree structured phases in a mixture of amphiphile and water, (a) Lamellar phase the hydrophilic heads shield the hydrophobic tails from the water by fonning a bilayer. The amphiphilic heads of different bilayers face each other and are separated by a thin water layer, (b) Hexagonal phase tlie amphiphiles assemble into a rod-like structure where the tails are shielded in the interior from the water and the heads are on the outside. The rods arrange on a hexagonal lattice, (c) Cubic phase amphiphilic micelles with a hydrophobic centre order on a BCC lattice.

Phase separation Phase structure Phase-transfer agents Phase-transfer catalysis... 

Models of a second type (Sec. IV) restrict themselves to a few very basic ingredients, e.g., the repulsion between oil and water and the orientation of the amphiphiles. They are less versatile than chain models and have to be specified in view of the particular problem one has in mind. On the other hand, they allow an efficient study of structures on intermediate length and time scales, while still establishing a connection with microscopic properties of the materials. Hence, they bridge between the microscopic approaches and the more phenomenological treatments which will be described below. Various microscopic models of this type have been constructed and used to study phase transitions in the bulk of amphiphihc systems, internal phase transitions in monolayers and bilayers, interfacial properties, and dynamical aspects such as the kinetics of phase separation between water and oil in the presence of amphiphiles. 

The formation mechanism of structure of the crosslinked copolymer in the presence of solvents described on the basis of the Flory-Huggins theory of polymer solutions has been considered by Dusek [1,2]. In accordance with the proposed thermodynamic model [3], the main factors affecting phase separation in the course of heterophase crosslinking polymerization are the thermodynamic quality of the solvent determined by Huggins constant x for the polymer-solvent system and the quantity of the crosslinking agent introduced (polyvinyl comonomers). The theory makes it possible to determine the critical degree of copolymerization at which phase separation takes place. The study of this phenomenon is complex also because the comonomers act as diluents. 

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