Effective interaction parameter between topologically distinct polymers

C.C. Greenberg , M.D. Foster (1) , C.M. Turner , S. Corona-Galvan , E. Cloutet (2) , P.D. Butler , B. Hammouda , R.P. Quirk (1)

1 Department of Polymer Science, The University of Akron
2 LCPO - Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques

The magnitude of the thermodynamic interaction in a bulk binary homopolymer blend due to regular branching alone has been estimated from small angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements for the first time using blends of star and linear poly(styrene)s of well defined structure. The value of χ for a blend of deuterated four arm star (M=100 000 g/mol) with hydrogenous linear polystyrene (M=132 000 g/mol) of comparable molecular weight is χ=0.1278/T−0.0002 over the temperature range of 120–225°C for a segment volume of 100 cm3/mol. The contribution to χ ascribable to architecture effects is just distinguishable from that due to isotopic substitution alone and in surprisingly good agreement with an approximate prediction from a mean field theory. The precise value of χ varies depending on which component is labeled.

Domaines: Polymères

C.C. Greenberg, M.D. Foster, C.M. Turner, S. Corona-Galvan, E. Cloutet, et al.. Effective interaction parameter between topologically distinct polymers. Polymer, 1999, 40 (16), pp.4713-4716. ⟨10.1016/S0032-3861(99)00083-X⟩. ⟨hal-02930384⟩