M. Mathew et al., COMPATIBILITY STUDIES OF POLYMER-POLYMER SYSTEMS BY VISCOMETRIC TECHNIQUES - NITRILE-RUBBER-BASED POLYMER BLENDS, Polymer, 39(25), 1998, pp. 6235-6241
Interactions in binary polymer systems have been analysed from the vis
cosity behaviour. Dilute solution viscosity measurements were made on
three different ternary polymer (1)/polymer (2)-solvent (3) systems, i
.e. acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR)/polystyrene, NBR/poly(styrene
-co-acrylonitrile), NBR/poly(acrylonitrile-co-butadiene-styrene) in ch
loroform, as a function of blend composition. The polymer-polymer inte
raction parameter chi(i(p-p)) and the corresponding polymer-solvent in
teraction parameter chi(i(p-s)) were determined for ail the blend syst
ems. In order to predict compatibility, the interaction parameter term
Delta b, obtained from modified Krigbaum and Wall theory, and the dif
ference in the intrinsic viscosities of the polymer mixtures and the w
eight-average intrinsic viscosities of the two polymer solutions taken
separately are used. These results were correlated with the experimen
tally determined densities and were found to be in agreement. Finally,
the results are correlated with spectroscopic evidence. (C) 1998 Else
vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.