Effect of van der Waals surface interactions on wetting transitions in polymer blends

Abstract

We examine the effect of van der Waals type interactions between the surface and monomers on wetting transitions in polymer blends. Using a Monte Carlo method we find that as long as the effective range of the van der Waals interaction is much smaller than the size of the polymers the transition may be described by a short range model. However, when the range of the interaction becomes comparable to the polymer size it can affect both the polymer density profile and the order of the wetting transition.