Nucleation in binary polymer blends: effects of foreign mesoscopic spherical particles.

We study nucleation in binary polymer blends in the presence of mesoscopic spherical particles using self-consistent field theory, considering both heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation mechanisms. Heterogeneous nucleation is found to be highly sensitive to surface selectivity and particle size, with rather subtle dependence on the particle size. Particles that preferentially adsorb the nucleating species generally favor heterogeneous nucleation. For sufficiently strong adsorption, barrierless nucleation is possible. By comparing the free energy barrier for homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation, we construct a kinetic phase diagram.