Effects of Copolymer Sequence Distribution on the Miscibility of Poly(ethylene oxide)/Poly(styrene-<i>co</i>-acrylic acid) Blends:  A Molecular Simulation Approach

Abstract

The effect of the copolymer sequence distribution on the miscibility of a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)/poly(styrene- co -acrylic acid) (SAA) blend has been investigated by molecular simulations. The molecular simulation provides a method to calculate the interaction energy parameter and hydrogen-bond energy. It is observed that both the sequence distribution and the composition of the SAA copolymer significantly affect the degree of miscibility. For a fixed composition, there exists an optimal range of sequence distributions for which the blend system is miscible.