Studies of peroxide curing of polybutadiene/zinc diacrylate blends by fastFT-IR imaging

Fast Fourier transform infrared (FI-IR) imaging measurements of cured polyb utadiene(PBD)/zinc diacrylate(ZDA) showed a heterogeneous distribution of z inc diacrylate. The phase structures were classified as PBD-rich and ZDA-ri ch domains. Upon curing, the increase in the infrared aliphatic CH stretchi ng mode at 2916cm(-1) and the decrease in unsaturated CH stretching mode at 3075 cm(-1) were observed as the single bond crosslinks were formed at the expense of double bonds. In a solvent diffusion experiment with toluene of these cured blends, it was observed that more solvent is imbibed into the PBD-rich matrix than the ZDA-rich domains. The difference is due to the low er swelling ratio of ZDA-rich domains than that of PBD-rich matrix.