Crystallization behavior of dry-brush PEO-PS block copolymer and PEO homopolymer blend

✍ Scribed by Ying Gao; Honglai Liu

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 142 KB
• Volume: 106
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/app.26812

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The crystallization behavior of semicrystalline PEO homopolymer/triblock PS‐PEO‐PS copolymer blend system, which exhibited “Dry‐Brush” in the melt. A symmetric polystyrene–poly(ethylene oxide)–polystyrene triblock copolymer was blended with PEO homopolymer (h‐PEO) having the same molecular weight as that of the PEO block in the copolymer. Considering the composition of the blend (W~ps~ ≥ 0.8), PEO spheres were formed in the blend. Because of the dry‐brush phase behavior of this blend, h‐PEO added was localized in the PEO microdomains, which increases the domain size without changing the microdomain morphology. The crystallization of PEO block was confined within the microdomains and the crystallization temperature was about 60°C lower than normal. Self‐seeding tests were performed to clarify the nucleation mechanism of the blend. Because the droplets size varies greatly, multicrystallization peaks were witnessed in the self‐seeding process. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007