ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a fundamental molecular picture of heterophase polymerization. Two important characteristics of heterophase polymerization processes are its multiscale nature and its inherent randomness. Molecular diffusion is one of the most important processes taking place in heterophase polymerization. Ultimately, intermolecular forces are electrostatic in nature, since all molecules present a certain degree of polarization, depending on the particular spatial arrangement of the electrons of the atoms. The resulting chaotic motion of individual molecules is usually denoted as Brownian motion, random motion, or simply as diffusion. The numerical solution to Langevin’s equation for Brownian motion is known as Langevin Dynamics simulation. If the system is assumed to relax completely, the solution to the equations of motion corresponds to the method of Brownian Dynamics simulation. Molecular phases are very important for chemical reactions since chemical forces act locally at very short distances.
