| Abstract: | Ultraviolet and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy are used to characterize the chain conformation of 2,6-dimethyl poly(phenylene oxide) (2MPPO) in compatible 2MPPO-polystyrene (PS) blends. Blending with PS increases the intramolecular energy of the 2MPPO. Atactic PS induces a greater distortion from the minimum energy conformation of 2MPPO than isotactic PS. The dispersion interaction between the phenyl ring of PS and the phenylene ring of 2MPPO is found to be quite strong. These large intermolecular forces are thought to supercede the increase in 2MPPO conformational energy and to be responsible for the blend compatibility. |
