CO2 bubble nucleation in polystyrene: Experimental and modeling studies

Polymer foams are used extensively in a variety of applications. A firm understanding of bubble nucleation is vital to predict foam properties based on process conditions. However, a number of theoretical and experimental challenges have thus far limited progress in this area. We propose the use of a scaling theory to connect nucleation behavior to well understood bulk phase behavior of polystyrene-CO₂ systems, which can be predicted by equations of state, such as the Sanchez–Lacombe equation of state. Scaling theory of nucleation asserts that when the reversible work of critical nucleus formation is properly normalized and plotted against the normalized degree of supersaturation, the resulting scaling curve is insensitive to temperature and the materials being used. Once the form of the scaling function is known, it can be used to predict the nucleation barrier knowing only the initial foaming conditions and calculating only bulk thermodynamic values. Using an extension of diffuse interface theory, we determined the slope of the scaling curve near saturation. This initial slope allows us to constrain the scaling function for better predictions of the reversible work. We also performed a series of experiments to help verify the accuracy of the scaling theory. The scaled free energy barriers determined from our experiments are consistent with the scaling function so constructed, and our theoretical results qualitatively agree with those found previously. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012