%0 Journal Article
%T Jumping In and Out of the Phase Diagram Using Electric Fields: Time Scale for Remixing of Polystyrene/Poly(vinyl methyl ether) Blends
%J -
%D 2019
%R https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.8b00989
%X We demonstrate it is possible to repeatedly jump polystyrene (PS)/poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) blends from the one-phase to two-phase region by simply turning on and off an electric field at a fixed temperature near the phase boundary. This builds on our previous work that established electric fields enhance the miscibility of PS/PVME blends by shifting the phase separation temperature TS(E) of 50/50 blends up by 13.5 ¡À 1.4 K when field strengths of E = 1.7 ¡Á 107 V/m are applied (J. Chem. Phys.2014, 141, 134908). Monitoring the early stages of phase separation and remixing by fluorescence, we measure the remixing time scale ¦Ó(T) with and without electric fields, finding ¦Ó(T) is unchanged by the presence of the field and well fit by a Vogel¨CFulcher¨CTammann expression. These observations are consistent with a mobility-limited process several degrees from the phase boundary where electric fields have shifted the miscibility transition
%U https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsmacrolett.8b00989