ISSN:
1089-7690
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
Notes:
We study the phase separation of amphiphilic systems with vacancies using Monte Carlo simulation of Larson models. We try to clarify the effect of vacancy on the domain growth of a microemulsion at different quench temperatures, and obtain the phase-separating morphology, the time evolution of the structure factor, and the characteristic length scale of the system. It is found that for the deep quench case, vacancies tend to locate at interfaces and accelerate phase separation. However, for shallow quenches an amount of vacancies migrates into the bulk phase and domain growth kinetics assisted by vacancies at interfaces is balanced by the lowering interface tension of vacancies. This has been attributed to the interplay between vacancy-mediated segregation dynamics and reduction of driving force for the phase separation through vacancies at interface, depending on the quench temperatures. On the contrary, all the amphiphile molecules are still deposited onto interfaces even for high temperatures because of the chain properties of the amphiphiles. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1308282
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