Domains of cocontinuous polymer blends coarsen during annealing. In general, coarsening undergoes two regimes: linear growth followed by slower nonlinear growth. While the linear regime is well understood by several theories, the number of studies on the nonlinear regime is scarce and often inconclusive. Herein, we examine the entire spectrum of the coarsening of cocontinuous polymer blends using an in situ high-temperature confocal rheology technique. By linking 4-dimensional microscopic details (time evolution of three-dimensional microscopic details) with the rheological properties, we demonstrate that the transition to the nonlinear regime is associated with the onset of droplet formation during the coarsening of these blends. Such transitions and morphological changes occurred only in the blends with high interfacial tension to zero-shear viscosity ratio (Γ/η₀). This phenomenon provides a framework for comprehensive model development. By analyzing the data from the literature, we propose that there exists a critical Γ/η₀ ratio beyond which the system undergoes such transitions.

中文翻译：

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共连续聚合物共混物粗化过程中的微观结构重排及其流变学特征

共连续聚合物共混物的区域在退火过程中变粗糙。通常，粗化经历两种方式：线性增长，然后是较慢的非线性增长。尽管线性理论已被几种理论很好地理解，但有关非线性理论的研究却很少，而且往往没有定论。本文中，我们使用原位高温共聚焦流变技术检查了共连续聚合物共混物粗化的整个光谱。通过将4维微观细节（三维微观细节的时间演化）与流变特性联系起来，我们证明了向这些非线性混合物过渡的过程与这些混合物粗化过程中液滴形成的开始有关。₀）。这种现象为全面的模型开发提供了框架。通过文献中分析所述数据，我们建议，存在一个临界Γ/η ₀比超出该系统经历这种转变。