Blends of bisphenol-A polycarbonate and acrylic polymers: II. PC/acrylic copolymers as a new route for compatibilization

An acrylic polymer containing acid and anhydride units, referred to as reactive polyglutarimide (RPGI), has been used to react with PC. The reaction has been previously determined as an acidolysis of the carbonate bond which breaks the PC chain in two parts. One of those two parts remains free while the other one is grafted on the acrylic backbone. We have found that the anhydride units could also react with the carbonate bonds. In this case the PC macromolecule would also be broken in two parts, which would, however, both be grafted on the acrylic backbone. The reaction has been performed in solution in order to keep good contact between the reacting units. The influence of temperature and concentration on the grafting ratio has been studied. The best experimental conditions were determined in order to obtain a grafted copolymer where the acrylic backbone only supports, on the average, one PC side chain through acid reaction or two PC chains through anhydride reaction. Indeed, these two types of reactions could not be isolated. The efficiency of this copolymer as emulsifier has been studied in solution cast blends as well as in melt mixed blends. The copolymer strongly affects the microstructure in solution cast blends where films containing 30 wt % of PC have become transparent. However, the dispersed phase size of solvent cast blends could be highly influenced by the casting conditions related to solvent trapping. In melt mixed samples, the copolymer also reduces significantly the dispersed phase size, but no transparent blends have been observed so far. These results were compared with those given in the literature describing the efficiency of a synthesized copolymer which has a more complicated structure. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 35: 735–747, 1997     

Blends of bisphenol-A polycarbonate and acrylic polymers: III. Effect of imide concentration on compatibility

Imide units copolymerized with MMA units have been selected in order to improve compatibility between PC and acrylics through specific interaction or internal repulsion. Good dispersion of acrylic inside a PC matrix has been observed upon melt mixing, which can be partially explained by the good rheological agreement between these two polymers. Transmission electron microscopy has shown that the system remains phase separated from 5 to 95 wt % of PC. Phase diagrams for three different imide concentrations have been drawn. Results obtained by DSC (conventional and with enthalpy relaxation) are similar to those obtained by optical cloud point detection. The phase diagrams show the raise of the PC/PMMA demixtion curve (LCST type) when percentage of imide increases in the acrylic phase. Theoretical calculations on binary interaction energy density show a slight improvement of the interaction between acrylic and PC when imide percentage increases. Cloud point measurements on 50/50 PC/acrylic blends varying the imide concentration show that the improvement of compatibility deduced from the raise of the demixtion curve (LCST type) is more related to a kinetic effect (the high T_g of imidized samples is reducing macromolecule mobility) than specific interactions. The calculated favorable interactions are probably too weak to be detected with cloud point measurements. The microstructures obtained after crystallization of the PC phase under solvent vapors in phase separated PC/acrylics blends can also be explained by T_g effects. Moreover, solvent vapor exposure could be a powerful tool to determine the real thermodynamic behavior of the blends at room temperature. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 35: 749–761, 1997     

Proton NMR investigation of the local dynamics of PEO in PEO/PMMA blends

Longitudinal relaxation of proton magnetisation was used to characterize the molecular motions of PEO chains in compatible PEO (hydrogenated)/PMMA (deuterated) blends. Both the temperature and the PEO concentration, Φ, were varied. A maximum in the spin–lattice relaxation rate was observed and its properties were analyzed as a function of Φ. For Φ ≤ 0.50, the maximum is observed below the glass transition temperature of the blend; this shows that PEO chains dispersed in a matrix of PMMA remain highly mobile on a local scale even below T_g(Φ). A frequency–temperature correspondence procedure, applied to the measurements performed at two Larmor frequencies, 32 and 60 MHz, leads to a characteristic correlation time for PEO molecular motions. Its temperature dependence obeys a WLF free volume relation above the glass transition of the blends. The PEO free volume fraction and its thermal expansion are strongly reduced by the presence of the PMMA chains. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 35: 1095–1105, 1997     

Thermal diffusivity of polymer films by pulsed photothermal radiometry

We have developed a pulsed photothermal radiometry technique for determining the thermal diffusivity parallel to the surface of a polymer film that involves flashing a line-shaped laser beam on the surface of the sample at right angle to its length, and monitoring the temperature change with time at a distance from the line source using an infrared detector. Combining this with our previous laser-flash radiometry method for thermal diffusivity measurement perpendicular to the film surface, we can now measure the thermal diffusivity of a polymer film along all directions. These two techniques have been used to study uniaxially and biaxially oriented poly(ethylene terephalate) and uniaxially drawn ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene films. For uniaxially oriented poly(ethylene terephalate), the thermal diffusivity along the draw direction is substantially higher than that in the transverse direction, which in turn, is slightly higher than that in the thickness direction. For a polyethylene film with a draw ratio of 200, the axial thermal diffusivity is extremely high, being about five times that of stainless steel. The anisotropy of the thermal diffusivity of this film exceeds 90. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 35 : 1621–1631, 1997     

A rigorous comparison of theoretical autocorrelation functions with dielectric relaxation parameters for the alpha process of polymers

Recently, tables of parameters used to represent experimental dielectric relaxation data as well as autocorrelation functions have become available. The experimental and autocorrelation function data were represented with the Havriliak–Negami function using rigorous statistical techniques. These tables include not only parameters and their temperature dependencies, but also the confidence intervals for all of the parameters. The important parameters for this work are the two shape parameters, α and β, which represent the width and skewness of the relaxation process, respectively. A comparison is made between the experimental data and several autocorrelation functions by calculating the minimum distance (in units of standard deviations) between the experimental values of αβ parameters for a specific polymer and the αβ parameters corresponding to the autocorrelation functions reported in these tables. Quantities derived from these minimum distances (a distribution function and an error function) are reported for each of the autocorrelation functions. These results are discussed in terms of the basic assumptions of the mode coupling theory. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 35: 1887–1897, 1997     

The first 85% kraft lignin-based thermoplastics

Interest in the development of lignin-containing polymeric materials has been upheld more or less continuously for the past 20 years. Tendencies toward high moduli and poorly defined thermal transitions have been regarded as imposing inevitable limitations upon the use of lignin derivatives for such purposes. Incorporation of more than 25–40% (w/w) lignin had usually resulted in materials that were brittle and weak. For the first time, however, from homogeneous blends containing 85% (w/w) underivatized industrial kraft lignin with poly(vinyl acetate) and two plasticizers, a series of thermoplastics has been fabricated with promising mechanical properties. The tensile behavior of these new polymeric materials depends directly upon the degree of association between the intrinsic kraft lignin components. In extending to values about 25 MPa and 1.5 GPa, respectively, the tensile strengths and Young's moduli vary linearly with the effective M̄_w for the kraft lignin species, under conditions where the proportions of the individual molecular components, both associated and discrete, do not change. Moreover, melt-flow index measurements indicate that these polymeric materials are amenable to thermal processing by extrusion molding. Thus a significant step has been taken toward developing a new generation of thermoplastics that are lignin-based in a very fundamental way. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 35: 1899–1910, 1997     

Molecular probe techniques for studying diffusion and relaxation in thin and ultrathin polymer films

Two optically based, molecular probe techniques are employed to study relaxation and small-molecule translational diffusion in thin and ultrathin (thicknesses < ∼200 nm) polymer films. Second harmonic generation (SHG) is used to study the reorientational dynamics of a nonlinear optical chromophore, Disperse Red 1 (DR1) (previously shown to be an effective probe of α-relaxation dynamics) either covalently attached or freely doped in polymer films. Our studies on films ranging in thickness from 7 nm to 1 μm show little change in T_g with film thickness; however, a substantial broadening of the relaxation distribution is observed as film thickness decreases below approximately 150 nm. Experimental guidelines are given for using fluorescence nonradiative energy transfer (NRET) to study translational diffusion in ultrathin polymer films. Appropriate choice of a fluorescence donor species is important along with ensuring that diffusion is slow enough to be measured appropriately. Initial results on the diffusion of a small-molecule probe, lophine, in poly(isobutyl methacrylate) indicates that there is little change in probe diffusion coefficients in films as thin as 90 nm as compared to bulk films. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 35: 2795–2802, 1997     

Morphology and glass transition behavior of polycarbonate–phenoxy system: Effects of trans-reactions in domain interface regions

Effects of trans reactions on the morphology, glass transition, and phase behavior in a classical blend system of a poly(hydroxyl ether bisphenol-A) (phenoxy) with bisphenol-A polycarbonate (PC) were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and optical microscopy. Although two T_gs were observed in the as-prepared PC/phenoxy blends, an apparently single, but broadened, T_g was found in the blends after heating at high temperatures, typically 200–250°C for short times. The optical microscopy results indicated that same scales of heterogeneity did exist in post-heated PC/phenoxy blends as well as unheated blends. Explanations were provided. After heating-induced interchange reactions ( OH and carbonate), randomly linked polymer chains might form at the numerous interfaces of the mutually occluded/included micro-domains. The majority of the chains in the micro-domains are forced to relax in coordinated motion modes after heating, thus showing a single T_g. A mechanism of trans reactions in interfacial regions was briefly discussed in supplement to earlier reports in the literature. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

任意多阶梯度场强毛细管凝胶电泳中谱带的迁移和展宽

在自行制备的毛细管凝胶电泳柱上，通过实验考察毛细管凝胶电泳（ＣＧＥ）中场强（Ｅ）和组分迁移率（μ）的关系，发现在一般ＣＧＥ使用的场强范围内，μ随Ｅ增大而成近似线性的增加。并讨论了产生这种现象的原因。以此为基础提供了任意多阶梯度场强毛细管凝胶电泳中组分的迁移时间和距离的计算公式，用于编制计算机程序。