Phase Self-Assembly Driven Inverse Kinetics of Mixing in Ternary Encapsulated Polymer Blends

The influence of mixing time on the evolution of phase morphologies in poly(methyl methacrylate)/polystyrene/poly(butylene terephthalate) (PMMA/PS/PBT) and PMMA/PS/ polycarbonate (PC) immiscible ternary blends with encapsulated dispersed phases was investigated. It was found that both systems demonstrate up to a sevenfold enlargement of the phase dimensions with mixing time, that is, display an inverse kinetics of blending. In addition, three different mixing sequences (MSs) used for preparation of the compositions resulted in pronounced differences in the domain sizes, especially, at intermediate mixing times. These differences decreased gradually with further blending. The phenomena observed are explained in terms of a transition from the nonequilibrium to equilibrium encapsulated morphologies driven by interfacial forces and phase self-assembly effects.