Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Modeling diffusion in miscible polymer blend films.

Ananth Indrakanti1, Narayan Ramesh, J Larry Duda

  • 1Department of Chemical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.

The Journal of Chemical Physics
|July 21, 2004
PubMed
Summary

The study reveals that apparent polymer diffusion coefficients are influenced by concentration gradients, not solely by chain motion mechanisms like reptation. This suggests polymer chains may be irreversibly pinned to surfaces, impacting transport dynamics.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Phase behavior, self-assembly, and interfacial tension of a dynamically linked polymer blend.

The Journal of chemical physics·2026
Same author

Processing-Driven Control of the Properties of Polymer Grafted Nanoparticle Composites.

ACS nano·2026
Same author

Entropic and Enthalpic Control of Interfacial Nanoparticle Jamming in Immiscible Polymers.

ACS macro letters·2026
Same author

Microphase Separation Controls the Dynamics of Associative Vitrimers.

ACS macro letters·2025
Same author

A data-driven approach to interfacial polymerization exploiting machine learning for predicting thin-film composite membrane formation.

Materials horizons·2025
Same author

Materials science underpinnings of micro and nanoplastics.

Soft matter·2025

Area of Science:

  • Polymer Physics
  • Materials Science
  • Surface Science

Background:

  • Experiments probe polymer transport using interdiffusion of multilayer polymer sandwiches.
  • Time and thickness dependencies of mutual binary diffusion coefficients (MBDC) are observed.
  • Existing interpretations link these dependencies to reptation and surface effects.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of chemical potential gradients in polymer interdiffusion.
  • To re-evaluate the interpretation of time and thickness dependencies in MBDC measurements.
  • To determine if experimental MBDC variations unequivocally support reptation theory.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized square gradient theory to calculate chemical potentials.
  • Applied Cahn formulation for diffusion in terms of chemical potential gradients.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Fitted time-dependent concentration profiles to Fick's law solutions to mimic experimental analysis.

    • Main Results:

    • Apparent MBDCs exhibit a time dependence of t(-1/2) at short times, aligning with experiments.
    • This time dependence is attributed to the system minimizing concentration gradients, a factor overlooked in Fick's law.
    • Predicted MBDC increase with decreasing thickness contradicts experimental findings, suggesting decreased bare mobility.

    Conclusions:

    • The time dependence of MBDC from interdiffusion experiments does not solely support reptation theory.
    • Observed thickness dependencies suggest polymer chains are strongly and irreversibly 'pinned' to surfaces.
    • This pinning effect significantly influences polymer chain dynamics and transport near surfaces.