The glass transition of mixtures of polystyrene with alkyl-terminated oligostyrene — experimental evidence for microphase separation in a polymer blend

Mixtures of high molecular weight polystyrene (P n = 961.5 ; T g = 373 K) and sec-butyl-terminated oligostyrene (P n = 10.6 ; T g = 302 K) show a dependence of the glass transition on the composition (i.e., number-average molecular weight) which cannot be described by the classic equations of Fox & Flory or Kanig & Ueberreiter. Addition of small amounts of the oligostyrene strongly decreases the glass transition, and above an oligomer content of 40 wt.-% the glass transition remains constant within experimental error. This behavior can be attributed to the unfavorable interactions between the alkyl-terminated oligomer and the high molecular weight PS. As a result the oligomer is a bad solve…

Semi-IPN's of different composition, based on linear poly(methyl vinyl ether) (PVME) and crosslinked polystyrene are studied using stress and birefringence measurements in simple elongation. From quasistatic stress-strain experiments at constant T(experiment)-Tg, it can be deduced that the stress results only from the deformation of the polystyrene network, while the PVME chains do not contribute to the macroscopic stress. The concentration dependence of the network modulus is adequately described by the rubber elastic theories