Phase behaviors of polymer solutions using molecular simulation technique

Abstract

Phase behaviors of polymer solutions are estimated using a combination of thermodynamic models and molecular simulation technique. In general, many parameters of binary systems are determined by fitting a thermodynamic model with experimental data. In this study, we obtained all parameters using molecular simulation. To take the specific interaction into account, we assume that it only occurs between a solvent molecule and a specific group. Our results show that the theoretical treatment accounting for the specific interaction gives more accurate predictions than those without consideration of specific interaction. Also, our approach describes the phase equilibria of various polymer solutions over the entire concentration remarkably well.