This paper reviews the literature of polymer blends containing low and high molar mass liquid crystals. Low molar mass liquid crystals have been used as plasticizers for thermoplastic polymers and in applications such as electrooptics, optical recording media, and membranes. High molar mass liquid crystalline polymers have been primarily used in polymer blends as processing aids and as an incipient reinforcing phase for “self‐reinforced” materials. This review discusses the phase behavior, rheology, and mechanical properties of these blends.

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Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) is used to study the kinetics of spinodal decomposition of a blend of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) with solution chlorinated polyethylene. The early stages of phase separation are quantified using Cahn‐Hilliard theory. Temperature and molecular weight dependences of interdiffusion are studied and it is shown that data can be better interpreted in terms of a wave vector dependent diffusional mobility M(q).

When a polymer blend is heated to within the unstable region of the temperature ‐ composition diagram spinodal decomposition may be observed using small angle neutron scattering. In the one phase region scattering has been used to obtain the temperature and composition dependence of the second derivative with respect to composition of the Gibbs free energy of mixing. Correlation of these two types of measurement not only tests the current theories of spinodal decomposition, but provides insight into the molecular parameters controlling domain morphology in phase separation blends.

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