Phase equilibrium in mixtures of flexible and stiff polymers studied by Monte Carlo simulation.

We present computer simulations of dense polymer mixtures composed of flexible and semiflexible chains. It is found that a demixing transition takes place below a certain degree of flexibility, even without introducing repelling interactions between the two polymers except the excluded volume condition. Computing the equilibrium concentration of phases for various temperatures, a phase diagram for the binary mixture is found. The results show qualitative agreement with the Flory lattice theory of stiff chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]