Mayes Polymer Blend Applet

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the Mayes’ group polymer blend applet.  The purpose of this applet is to use our compressible regular solution model (CRS) to calculate phase diagrams of binary systems from pure component properties.  The applet includes a small database of polymers and their corresponding properties that were estimated from group contribution methods or experimental data. The applet also includes a calculator for the construction of custom polymers and to estimate their properties.

 

Instructions

 

The input parameters required for the calculation are:

 

Molecular Weight (polymer). - [g/mol] mass of one mol of polymer chains expressed on grams.

Molecular Weight (repeat unit). - [g/mol] mass of one mol of repeat units expressed on grams.

Solubility Parameter (d) . – [J1/2/cm2/3] Hildebrand solubility parameter or cohesive energy density:

Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (a). – [1/K] The volumetric coefficient of thermal expansion

Hard Core Density (r*). – [g/cm3] Is defined as the density of the component at 0 Kelvin.

 

 

There are three ways to choose polymer components (and their parameters) in the applet.

 

Method 1. Polymers from the Database

 

The easiest way to generate phase diagrams for the most common polymers is to select the two desired polymers using the dropdown boxes in the Polymer Input pane of the Diagram Maker.  Once two polymers are selected the pure component properties of the polymers will appear in the appropriate boxes. The desired molecular weights have to be input for each component.

 

 

Method 2. Custom Polymers with Known Pure Component Properties

 

If the pure component properties of the desired polymers are known, they may be entered directly into the boxes of the Polymer input pane.  This method may also be used to investigate the effects of varying the pure component properties of known or custom polymers.

 

Method 3. Estimating Pure Component Properties with Group Contribution

 

To use the group contribution calculator, first select it by clicking the button marked Group Contribution at the top of the applet.  Next use the Construct Polymer pane to add the desired number of the desired groups by selecting the desired group, entering a number in the box initially marked “# of Groups” and then clicking on the Add button.  In the Group Selector dropdown box “A” denotes an aromatic carbon, for example, a phenyl group would be 5 ACH groups plus one AC.  Use the boxes labeled Tg and Molecular Weight to define these properties of the custom polymer. Tg is used to approximate the required thermal expansion coefficient of the polymer.  Finally use the buttons at the bottom of the applet to send your custom polymer to the list in either the first or second dropdown box in the Diagram Maker window.  If you create more than one custom polymer, these will be added to the bottom of list in the order in which you create them.

 To return to the Diagram Maker window and continue creating an estimated phase diagram using your custom made polymers click the Diagram Maker button at the top of the applet.

 

Calculating the Phase Diagram

In order to generate a diagram once two components have been selected by any of the three methods, the desired temperature range (in Kelvin) should be input the boxes at the bottom of the Phase Diagram window and click the Calculate button.  (Note: the program will not generate a meaningful if the lower temperature bound is less than or equal to 0, as would be expected).

 

 

This applet requires JAVA VM software that can be downloaded at    

 

Java and the Java Coffee Cup Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.

 

Applet generated by NetBeans IDE Copyright 2002 David Schoen