Quantifying the Effect of Polymer Blending through Molecular Modelling of Cyanurate Polymers.

Modification of polymer properties by blending is a common practice in the polymer industry. We report here a study of blends of cyanurate polymers by molecular modeling that shows that the final experimentally determined properties could be predicted from first principles modeling to a good degree of accuracy. There is always a compromise between simulation length, accuracy and speed of prediction. A comparison of simulation times shows that 125ps of molecular dynamics simulation at each temperature provides the optimum compromise for models of this size with current technology. This study opens up the possibility of computer-aided design of polymer blends with desired physical and mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]