Atomistic simulation based prediction of the solvent effect on the molecular mobility and glass transition of poly (methyl methacrylate)

S Mishra and S Keten, APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS, 102, 041903 (2013).

DOI: 10.1063/1.4788744

We present an investigation of the retained solvent effect on the glass transition temperature (T-g) of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) through all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. Addition of a weakly interactive solvent, tetrahydrofuran (THF), causes a depression of the PMMA T-g that can be identified through an analysis of the mean squared displacement of the polymer chains from atomistic trajectories. Our results are in very good agreement with an atomistically informed theoretical model based on free volume theory and demonstrate the applicability of molecular simulation to discern solvent effects on polymer thermomechanical behavior in silico. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4788744

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