Em. Woo et Yc. Tseng, Class transition and miscibility in blends of two semicrystalline polymers: Poly(aryl ether ketone) and poly(ether ether ketone), J POL SC PP, 37(13), 1999, pp. 1485-1494
Binary melt-blended mixtures of two aryl ether ketone polymers (i.e., a new
polyaryl ether ketone) (code name PK99) and poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK
), have been studied. Polymer miscibility in glassy amorphous (or melt) dom
ains has been demonstrated for the binary blend comprising of two aryl-ethe
r-ketone-type semicrystalline polymers. Composition-dependent, single T-g w
as observed within full composition range in the PK99/PEEK blends, and the
narrow T-g breadth also suggests that the scale of mixing was fine and unif
orm. To better resolve any possible overlapping T-g's, physical aging was i
mposed on a comparison set of blend samples for the purpose of improving de
tectability of overlapped multiple transitions if existing. The result stil
l showed one single T-g. The relative sharp T-g and lack of cloud point tra
nsition suggest that the scale of molecular intermixing is good. Phase homo
geneity was further confirmed using optical and scanning electron microscop
y. The X-ray diffractograms suggest that isomorphism does not exist in the
PK99/PEEK blends and that the crystal forms of the respective polymers rema
in distinct and unchanged by the miscibility in the amorphous region. (C) 1
999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.