Skip to main content

Save up to 30% on Elsevier print and eBooks with free shipping. No promo code needed.

Save up to 30% on print and eBooks.

Phase Transitions in Polymers: The Role of Metastable States

  • 1st Edition - July 17, 2008
  • Author: Stephen Z.D. Cheng
  • Language: English
  • Hardback ISBN:
    9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 4 - 5 1 9 1 1 - 5
  • eBook ISBN:
    9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 5 5 8 2 0 - 2

A classical metastable state possesses a local free energy minimum at infinite sizes, but not a global one. This concept is phase size independent. We have studied a number of… Read more

Phase Transitions in Polymers: The Role of Metastable States

Purchase options

LIMITED OFFER

Save 50% on book bundles

Immediately download your ebook while waiting for your print delivery. No promo code is needed.

Institutional subscription on ScienceDirect

Request a sales quote
A classical metastable state possesses a local free energy minimum at infinite sizes, but not a global one. This concept is phase size independent. We have studied a number of experimental results and proposed a new concept that there exists a wide range of metastable states in polymers on different length scales where their metastability is critically determined by the phase size and dimensionality. Metastable states are also observed in phase transformations that are kinetically impeded on the pathway to thermodynamic equilibrium. This was illustrated in structural and morphological investigations of crystallization and mesophase transitions, liquid-liquid phase separation, vitrification and gel formation, as well as combinations of these transformation processes. The phase behaviours in polymers are thus dominated by interlinks of metastable states on different length scales. This concept successfully explains many experimental observations and provides a new way to connect different aspects of polymer physics.