KINETICS OF NUCLEATION IN A DILUTE POLYMER-SOLUTION

To determine the time evolution of the droplet size distribution in the nucleation process, we have made light-scattering measurements on supercooled dilute solutions of poly(methyl methacrylate) in 1-chlorobutane, which showed extremely slow phase separation, The observed scattered intensities were analyzed by the Guinier plot and represented in a scaled form. The time evolution of the mean radius R(t)BAR, total density N(t), and droplet size distribution N(R,t) of droplets of minority phase was given by the relations R(t)BAR is similar to t, N(t) is similar to t0.6, and N(R,t) = N(t)h (R/RBAR)RBAR, independent of quench depth and concentration.