Materials (Aug 2021)

Characterization of Monte Carlo Dynamic/Kinetic Properties of Local Structure in Bond Fluctuation Model of Polymer System

  • Wojciech Radosz,
  • Grzegorz Pawlik,
  • Antoni C. Mituś

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14174962
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 17
p. 4962

Abstract

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We report the results of the characterization of local Monte Carlo (MC) dynamics of an equilibrium bond fluctuation model polymer matrix (BFM), in time interval typical for MC simulations of non-linear optical phenomena in host-guest systems. The study contributes to the physical picture of the dynamical aspects of quasi-binary mosaic states characterized previously in the static regime. The polymer dynamics was studied at three temperatures (below, above and close to the glass transition), using time-dependent generalization of the static parameters which characterize local free volume and local mobility of the matrix. Those parameters play the central role in the kinetic MC model of host-guest systems. The analysis was done in terms of the probability distributions of instantaneous and time-averaged local parameters. The main result is the characterization of time scales characteristic of various local structural processes. Slowing down effects close to the glass transition are clearly marked. The approach yields an elegant geometric criterion for the glass transition temperature. A simplified quantitative physical picture of the dynamics of guest molecules dispersed in BFM matrix at low temperatures offers a starting point for stochastic modeling of host-guest systems.

Keywords