Search results for "blend"

Interpolymer complexes and polymer compatibility.

2012

A reliable method to decide whether two polymers A and B are miscible or incompatible would be very helpful in many ways. In this contribution we demonstrate why traditional procedures cannot work. We propose to use the intrinsic viscosities [η] of the polymer blends instead of the composition dependence of the viscosities as a criterion for polymer miscibility. Two macromolecules A and B are miscible because of sufficiently favorable interactions between the two types of polymer segments. For solutions of these polymers in a joint solvent, this Gibbs energetic preference of dissimilar intersegmental contacts should prevail upon dilution and lead to the formation of interpolymer complexes, …

1995

Redoxactive liquid crystalline (LC) side group polymers were prepared by copolymerization of liquid crystalline acrylates and ferrocene-containing acrylates. The corresponding liquid crystalline ionomers were synthesized by a reversible redox reaction. The incorporation of tetra-alkylated ferrocene derivatives leads to LC polymers with reduced redox potential. These polymers can be oxidized under mild conditions to the corresponding ionomers, which are much more stable in solution than LC ionomers containing monoalkylated ferrocenium ions. Dynamic mechanical measurements and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) perfomed on LC ionomers prove the existence of ionic superstructures (clusters) w…

Durability of a strach-based biodegradable polymer

2007

Abstract The photo-oxidation and the photo-stabilization of a commercial biodegradable polymer have been investigated in order to establish the possibility of using this polymer as raw material for films for agriculture. The degradation has been followed by measuring the mechanical properties as a function of photo-oxidation time and in particular by following the elongation at break. The virgin polymer, made from maize starch and a synthetic biodegradable polyester, shows poor resistance to the UV irradiation as observed by the fast decay of the elongation at break, but the presence of small amounts of conventional UV stabilizers strongly improves the durability of this polymer. The UV sta…

Effects of filler type and mixing method on the physical properties of a reinforced semirigid liquid crystal polymer

1996

Semirigid liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) show some advantages with respect to rigid LCP: in particular lower processing temperatures, better compatibility with flexible thermoplastics, but also some disadvantages. Thermal resistance of rigid LCPs is much better and the maximum working temperature is, in general, very high. The thermomechanical properties can be improved by adding inorganic fillers. In this work processing, mechanical and thermomechanical properties of a filled semirigid liquid crystal copolyester are reported. Several inorganic fillers have been used in order to put in evidence the influence of shape and dimensions of the particles on the properties of the filled materi…

Nanofilled Thermoplastic–Thermoplastic Polymer Blends

2014

Nanofillers can play two important roles in polymer blends. The first is the improvement of various properties such as mechanical, barrier, thermal, flame retardancy, and electrical properties. The second is the modification of miscibility/compatibility and morphology of polymer blends. The mechanism of action of nanoparticles to modify the morphology, interfacial properties, and performance of immiscible polymer blends relies on their localization, their interactions with polymer components, and the way these additives disperse within the polymer blend. The objective of this chapter is to review the research on nanofilled thermoplastic/thermoplastic polymer blends, paying particular attent…

Unusual crystallization kinetics in a hard sphere colloid-polymer mixture.

2008

We investigated the crystallization kinetics of a hard sphere colloid-polymer mixture at conditions where about 95% of solid coexists with about 5% of fluid. From time resolved Bragg and small angle light scattering, we find that the crystallite size increases with a power law of exponent alpha approximately 1/3 during both the conversion and the coarsening stage. This observation points to a single conserved order parameter for both stages and cannot be explained if the mixture is regarded as an effective one-component system. We alternatively suggest that--based on local geometric demixing--the polymer density takes the role of the conserved order parameter.

On the Improvement of the Processability of UHMW-HDPE by Adding a Liquid Crystalline Polymer and a Fluoroelastomer

2001

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene possesses many interesting properties but a very bad processability. This material is not usually processed in conventional devices but only by compression moulding and RAM extrusion. Low molecular weight polyethylene can be used to improve the processability. In this work small amounts of a fluoroelastomer and of a liquid crystalline polymer have been used as processing aids to improve the extrudability of this polymer. In fact, the die pressure decreases whereas the output flow rate slightly increases with increasing concentration of the processing aids. Solution viscosity data shows that reduction of the mechanical stress during extrusion decrease…

Re-entrant glass transition in a colloid-polymer mixture with depletion attractions.

2002

Performing light scattering experiments we show that introducing short-ranged attraction to a colloidal suspension of nearly hard spheres by addition of free polymer produces new glass transition phenomena. We observe a dramatic acceleration of the density fluctuations amounting to the melting of a colloidal glass. Increasing the strength of the attractions the system freezes into another nonergodic state sharing some qualitative features with gel states occurring at lower colloid packing fractions. This reentrant glass transition is in qualitative agreement with recent theoretical predictions.

Morphology and Rheology of HDPE/LCP Blends Compatibilized by a Novel PE-g-LCP Copolymer

1999

A novel graft copolymer (PE-g-LCP) consisting of polyethylene (PE) backbones and liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) branches was synthesized via reactive blending of an acrylic acid-functionalized PE (Escor 5000 by Exxon) with a semiflexible LCP (SBH 1 : 1 : 2 by Eniricerche S.p.A.). The crude reactive blending product (COP) was shown by investigation of the fractions soluble in boiling toluene and xylene and of the residue to contain unreacted Escor and SBH, together with the graft copolymer forming the interphase. The compatibilizing activity of COP for PE/SBH blends, compared to that of pure Escor, was investigated using two PE grades. The COP addition into 80/20 PE/SBH blends caused a muc…

Polymer-polymer interaction, in the presence of a solvent as measured by viscometry

2001

Dilute solution viscometry experiments have been carried out in five ternary polymer systems solvent(1)/polymer(2)/polymer(3). Values of the specific viscosity of polymer (3) in a ‘binary solvent’ formed by polymer(2) + solvent(1) have been used to determine the compatibility of the polymer blends. Krigbaum and Wall formalism has been used to predict compatibility which relies on an interaction parameter that depends on the concentration, weight fraction and molar mass of each polymer. To reduce the dependences and to clarify the criterion of compatibility, a parameter independent of polymer (3) composition and molar mass has been deduced. This parameter shows the same behaviour with polyme…