CALCULATION OF PHASE-EQUILIBRIA IN RANDOM COPOLYMER SYSTEMS

Synthesis and application of copolymers are not seldom connected with different phase equilibria. Their precise knowledge is of importance f or industrial processing as well as it is a profound basis for a bette r understanding of the nature and thermodynamics of such systems. As a common situation today, enough experimental information is seldom ava ilable in the necessary or desired amount, and a lot of model calculat ion is, therefore, more or less unavoidable to cover the desired range s of application. Different equations-of-state as well as lattice mode ls are discussed with respect to their applicability for calculating l iquid-liquid and gas-liquid phase equilibria in copolymer solutions an d blends. Examples for high-pressure phase equilibria in monomer/copol ymer mixtures, liquid-liquid demixing in copolymer blends and for the isotropic-nematic phase equilibrium in systems with rigid rod-like cop olymers characterized by distributions of rigid and flexible chain par ts are given. The effects of copolymer polydispersity are included by means of continuous thermodynamics. Literature references for original sources, earlier reviews and further applications round up this paper .