MISCIBILITY AND MORPHOLOGY OF THIN FILMS OF BLENDS OF POLYSTYRENE WITH BROMINATED POLYSTYRENES： EFFECTS OF VARYING THE MOLECULAR WEIGHT, BROMINATION DEGREE AND ANNEALING

Thin films of incompatible polymer blends can form a variety of structures during preparation and subsequent annealing process. For the polymer blend system consisting of polystyrene and poIy(styrene-co-p-bromo-styrene), i.e., PS/PBrxS, its compatibility could be adjusted by varying the degree of bromination and the molecular weight of both components comprised, in this paper, surface chemical compositions of the cast and the annealing films were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and contact angle measurement; meanwhile, surface topographical changes are followed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). In addition, substantial attention was paid to the effect of annealing on the morphologic variations induced by phase separation and/or dewetting of the thin film. Moreover, the influences of the molecular weight, Aw, as well as the brominated degree, x%, on the sample surface are explored systematically, and the corresponding observations are explained in virtue of the Flory-Huggins theory, along with the dewetting of the polymer thin film.

MISCIBILITY AND MORPHOLOGY OF THIN FILMS OF BLENDS OF POLYSTYRENE WITH BROMINATED POLYSTYRENES: EFFECTS OF VARYING THE MOLECULAR WEIGHT, BROMINATION DEGREE AND ANNEALING

Thin films of incompatible polymer blends can form a variety of structures during preparation and subsequent annealing process. For the polymer blend system consisting of polystyrene and poly(styrene-co-p-bromo-styrene), I.e.,PS/PBrxS, its compatibility could be adjusted by varying the degree of bromination and the molecular weight of both components comprised. In this paper, surface chemical compositions of the cast and the annealing films were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and contact angle measurement; meanwhile, surface topographical changes are followed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). In addition, substantial attention was paid to the effect of annealing on the morphologic variations induced by phase separation and/or dewetting of the thin film. Moreover, the influences of the molecular weight, Mw, as well as the brominated degree, x%, on the sample surface are explored systematically, and the corresponding observations are explained in virtue of the Flory-Huggins theory, along with the dewetting of the polymer thin film.