Dielectric in situ sensor monitoring of phase separation and changes in the state of each phase

Frequency dependent dielectric measurements have been used to monitor and characterize the phase separation process and changes in state of each phase. The measurements are made in situ using a micro planar sensor. They can be made both in the laboratory as well as in an industrial production or use environment. Two examples are presented. The first is monitoring the onset of phase separation, the buildup in Tg and change in composition of each phase during “reactive processing” of a high performance thermoplastic (TP) PPI, thermoset precursors (TS) DGEBA-MCDEA intially homogeneous blend. The second example involves monitoring the stability, onset of phase separation, as a function of temperature on a mineral oil, stearyl alcohol, water, sufactant emulsion used in the cosmetic industry.