Effect of the functional group inhomogeneity of an in situ reactive compatibilizer on the morphology and rheological properties of immiscible polymerblends
Jk. Kim et al., Effect of the functional group inhomogeneity of an in situ reactive compatibilizer on the morphology and rheological properties of immiscible polymerblends, POLYMER, 40(10), 1999, pp. 2737-2743
The effect of the poly(acrylic acid) homopolymer [PAA] existing in poly(pro
pylene-graft-acrylic acid) [PP-g-AA] on the morphology and rheological prop
erties of a PP-g-AA and polystyrene [PS] blend with varying amounts of poly
(styrene-ran-glycidyl methacrylate) [PS-GMA] was investigated. Two differen
t PP-g-AAs, one with PAA, [PP-g-AA(O)] and the other without PAA, [PP-g-AA(
T)], were used. We have shown that when the amount of PS-GMA is increased,
the dispersed domain size of PP-g-AA(O) in the PP-g-AA(O)/PS blend does not
decrease, even when the amount of PS-GMA in the blend is as large as 25 wt
%. Conversely, the dispersed domain size of PP-g-AA(T) in the PP-g-AA(T)/PS
blend does decrease gradually and reaches a steady value. However, the red
uction in the dispersed domain size (D-r) for PP-g-AA(T) in the PP-g-AA (T)
/PS blend with PS-GMA was just 30%. Here, D-r is defined by the dispersed d
omain size of the blend without PSGMA minus that with 15 wt% of PS-GMA divi
ded by the former. The changes in rheological properties with the proportio
n of PS-GMA content in the PP-g-AA(T)/PS blend were different to those for
the PP-g-AA(O)/PS blend, thus demonstrating that the presence of PAA signif
icantly affects the rheological as well as the morphological blend properti
es. (C) Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.