9526357 Composto The proposed resesarch on A/B:C blends will be the first attempt to study the behavior of the complex interfacial profiles and properties associated with three-component, two- phase systems. Both model and commercial systems will be studied including polystyrene blends and poly(methyl methacrylate blends. The interfacial properties will be modeled using the self-consistent field method. To complement these direct profiling measurements, neutron reflectivity experiments will be carried out at National Laboratories. In the third phase of the proposed research, the physics which underlies the wetting transition will be studied using a three-component polymer blend as a model system. %%% These studies may allow a polymer engineer to tune the morphology of complex blends by simply varying the degree of polymerization or concentration to achieve either encapsulated or separated phase domains. In addition to their intrinsic interest, the interfacial segregation and wetting studies on three-component systems will serve as a springboard for understanding more complicated systems such as those containing four-components and three-phases. ***
