Phase separation in blends of two homopolymers and a diblock copolymer during film casting

Demixing during film casting of blends of polystyrene, polymethylmethacrylate, and a symmetric diblock copolymer of styrene and methylmethacrylate is discussed. The concentration fluctuations in the homogeneous solutions were calculated in mean field approximation. The structures in the homogeneous and demixed solutions and in the dry films were measured by small-angle x-ray scattering, and the morphologies of the dry films were characterized by transmission electron microscopy. The structure of the dry blends is evidently already pre-formed in solution.     

Melting behaviors,crystallization kinetics,and spherulitic morphologies of poly(butylene succinate) and its copolyester modified with rosin maleopimaric acid anhydride

This article investigated the melting behaviors, crystallization kinetics, and spherulitic morphologies of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and its copolyester (PBSR) modified with rosin maleopimaric acid anhydride, using wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and polarized optical microscope. Subsequent DSC scans of isothermally crystallized PBS and PBSR exhibited two melting endotherms, respectively, which was due to the melt‐recrystallization process occurring during the DSC scans. The equilibrium melting point of PBSR (125.9 °C) was lower than that of PBS (139 °C). The commonly used Avrami equation was used to describe the isothermal crystallization kinetics. For nonisothermal crystallization studies, the model combining Avrami equation and Ozawa equation was employed. The result showed a consistent trend in the crystallization process. The crystallization rate was decreased, the perfection of crystals was decreased, the recrystallization was reduced, and the spherulitic morphologies were changed when the huge hydrogenated phenanthrene ring was added into the chain of PBS. The activation energy (ΔE) for the isothermal crystallization process determined by Arrhenius method was 255.9 kJ/mol for PBS and 345.7 kJ/mol for PBSR. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 900–913, 2006     

Imide-aryl ether ketone block copolymers

Imide-aryl ether ketone block copolymers were prepared and their morphology and thermal and mechanical properties investigated. Two aryl ether ketone blocks were incorporated; the first was an amorphous block derived from bisphenol–A and the second block was a semi-crystalline poly(aryl ether ether ketone) prepared from a soluble and amorphous ketimine precursor. Bis(amino) aryl ether ketone and aryl ether ketimine oligomers were prepared via a nucleophilic aromaic substitution reaction with molecular weights ranging from 6,000 to 12,000 g/mol. The oligomers were co-reacted with 4,4′-oxydianiline (ODA) and pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) diethyl ester diacyl chloride in N-methyl–2-pyrrolidone (NMP) in the presence of N-methylmorpholine. The copolymer compositions, determined by H-NMR, of the resulting amic ester based copolymers ranged from 8 to 50 wt % aryl ether ketone or ketimine content. Prior to imide formation, the ketimine moiety of the aryl ether ketimine block was hydrolyzed (p-toluene sulfonic acid) to the ketone form producing the aryl ether ether ketone block. Compositions of this block were maintained low to retain solubility. Solutions of the copolymers were cast and cured to effect imidization, producing clear films with high moduli (ca. 2200 MPa) and elongations (33–100%). The copolymers displayed good thermal stability with decomposition temperatures in excess of 450°C. Multiphase morphologies were observed irrespective of the co-block type, block length or composition. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Different defect morphologies in polyethylene crystal induced by surface physicochemical properties

The physicochemical properties of surfaces have a great effect on the micro-morphologies of the crystal structures which are in contact with them.Understanding the interaction mechanism between the internal driving forces of the crystal and external inducing forces of the surfaces is the prerequisite of controlling and obtaining the desirable morphologies.In this work,the dynamic density functional theory was applied to construct the free energy functional expression of polyethylene(PE) lattice,and the micro-dynamic evolution processes of PE lattice morphology near the surfaces with different properties were observed to reveal the interaction mechanism at atomic scale.The results showed that the physical and chemical properties of the external surfaces synergistically affect the morphologies in both the defect shapes and the distribution of the defect regions.In the absence of the contact surfaces,driven by the oriented interactions among different CH2 groups,PE lattices gradually grow and form a defect-free structure.Conversely,the presence of contact surfaces leads to lattice defects in the interfacial regions,and PE lattice shows different self-healing abilities around different surfaces.     

Morphologies of a spherical bimodal polyelectrolyte brush induced by polydispersity and solvent selectivity

It is commonly realized that polydispersity may significantly affect the surface modification properties of polymer brush systems. In light of this, we systematically study morphologies of bidisperse polyelectrolyte brush grafted onto a spherical nanocolloid in the presence of trivalent counterions using molecular dynamics simulations. Via varying polydispersity, grafting density, and solvent selectivity, the effects of electrostatic correlation and excluded volume are focused, and rich phase behaviors of binary mixed polyelectrolyte brush are predicted, including a variety of pinned-patch morphologies at low grafting density and micelle-like structures at high grafting density. To pinpoint the mechanism of surface structure formation, the shape factor of two species of polyelectrolyte chains and the pair correlation function between monomers from different polyelectrolyte ligands are analyzed carefully. Also, electrostatic correlations, manifested as the bridging through trivalent counterions, are examined by identifying four states of trivalent counterions. Our simulation results may be useful for designing smart stimuli-responsive materials based on mixed polyelectrolyte coated surfaces.     

Crystallization kinetics and the fine morphological evolution of poly(ethylene oxide)/ionic liquid mixtures

The overall crystallization kinetics and spherulite morphologies of miscible poly(ethylene oxide)(PEO)/1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate([BMIM][PF_6]) mixtures were studied by differential scanning calorimetry(DSC),polarized optical microscopy(POM) and rheological measurements. The finer crystal structures were further detected by wide angle X-ray diffraction(WAXD) and small angle X-ray scattering(SAXS). Crystallization of PEO is largely suppressed by [BMIM][PF_6] addition especially at higher ionic liquid(IL) concentrations above 20 wt%. Both the overall crystallization rate and the spherulite growth decrease with the increase of IL content and crystallization temperature; however, the crystallization mechanism keeps unchanged as evidenced by the similar Avrami exponent n and WAXD results. The addition of [BMIM][PF_6] could induce more nuclei to some extent, but the induction time of crystallization is evidently prolonged,and a linear to non-linear transition of the spherulite growth(R ∝ t to R ∝ t~(1/2)) can be observed. At higher IL concentration,the spherulite texture changes apparently from particular serrated to branch surface due to the diffusion-controlled growth and the dilution effect, which also as a main factor contributes to the increasing trend of the long period of crystals.     

Multiple morphologies of the aggregates from self‐assembly of diblock copolymer with relatively long corona‐forming block in dilute aqueous solution

Reported here is self‐assembly behavior in selective solvent of diblock copolymers with relatively long corona‐forming block compared to core‐forming block. Three diblock copolymers, poly(ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether‐b‐poly(methacryloyl‐L ‐leucine methyl ester), also denoted as MPEG‐b‐PMALM copolymer, were prepared by fixing MPEG block with an average number of repeating units of 115, whereas varying PMALM block with an average number of repeating unit of 44, 23, 9, respectively. Multiple morphologies, such as sphere, cylinder, vesicle, and their coexisted structures from self‐assembly of these diblock copolymers in aqueous media by changing block nonselective solvent and initial polymer concentration used in preparation, were demonstrated directly via TEM observation. These results herein might, therefore, demonstrate as an example that a wide range of morphologies can be accessed not only from “crew‐cut micelles” but also from “star‐micelles” by controlling over preparation strategies. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 48: 364–371, 2010     

Phase Morphologies of Binary Polymer Blends Predicted by Systematically Coarse‐Grained Models

In this work, the combined iterative Boltzmann inversion/conditional reversible work scheme is extended with a little modifications to derive the systematically coarse‐grained (CG) potentials for simulating two typical atactic polymer blends composed of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) or polystyrene (PS). Molecular dynamics simulations are extensively performed on the two blends with a wide formulation range. It is revealed by these simulations that, throughout the entire composition range, the PMMA/PVC blend is homogeneous whereas the PMMA/PS blend undergoes phase separation, which agrees well with the experimental observation that the former exhibits strong interactions that are absent in the latter. Depending upon the formulation, the immiscible PMMA/PS blend presents one single‐ or double‐continuous phase. It is further confirmed that intermolecular interactions play the key roles in forming the phase morphologies, which in turn can be inferred from only the three nonbonded CG potentials of one unlike pair and two like pairs.