FUNDAMENTALS OF POLYMER COAGULATION

Polymer coagulation is studied by a Monte Carlo diffusion model in whi ch coagulant, solvent, and polymer particles move on nearest neighbor lattice sites according to the change in local interaction energy. Our approach has allowed, for the first time, to describe the coagulation process beyond the initial quench state and to reproduce the wide var iety of different polymer structures that can be obtained, ranging fro m dust- to finger- to spongelike morphologies. We show that these morp hologies are fully controlled by the coagulation rate which is itself strongly dependent on the degree of miscibility between solvent and co agulant. (C) 1995 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.