This invention relates to a process for using computerized molecular interaction modeling to predict the
adhesive interactions between a substrate and a
polymer. The molecular modeling method may be used to predict and select optimal adhesion promoting monomers for use in latex
polymer coatings, providing the best wet adhesion to
alkyd-coated substrates. The molecular modeling method could also predict substrate
polymer pairs having the least affinity, and thus the most useful as a
release liner. The method involves the steps of:a) identifying interacting chemical segments on both the surface and the polymer;b) generating models of the interacting segments, said models describing the
spatial relationship of each atom in the segment and the
connectivity between the atoms;c) merging the models of each surface segment with each polymer segment to describe each possible interacting surface / polymer pair;d) generating several hundred random configurations for each surface / polymer pair merged models, by choosing random values for the six spatial variables, that describe the relative orientations of two objects;e) optimizing the
atomic coordinates of each surface / polymer segment
interaction model by calculating the minimum of the molecular
potential energy;f) computing the pair
interaction energy for each merged model pair;g) averaging the pair interaction energies; andh) comparing the average pair interaction energies of each surface / polymer pair to choose the best pair for the intended application.