Chaotic Advection as a Means to Develop Nanoscale Structures in Viscous Melts

Nanoscale materials are typically produced either by breaking down larger structures or by assembling them directly from their smaller constituents. Another approach is to establish processing conditions where initially large component domains in the melt intermingle via intelligent agitations in accordance with continuum mechanics, refine progressively, and eventually give nanoscale materials where molecular interactions may induce further orientation. In this paper, the potential of chaotic advection to develop in situ nanoscale structures is specifically described in polymer melts. Due to induced chaotic motions, melt domains stretch and fold recursively. Structure is evolved in lieu of being broken down as occurs typically in common blending. Moreover, the extent of structure development is controllable so that a variety of distinct material arrangements can be formed.