Interpenetration of polystyrene chains in bulk polymer

Abstract

Polystyrenes lightly substituted with either tertiary amine groups or nitrophenol groups have been allowed to interact in concentrated t‐butylbenzene solution and in bulk polymer. Above the glass transition temperature a temperature dependent equilibrium is achieved in the bulk polymer between the two substituents and the amine salt of the phenol. The degree of association found is considerably greater in the bulk polymer than in solution. The results show that much interpenetration of the polymer occurs, and the results are discussed in terms of models of the bulk amorphous state of the polymer.

Fluorescence Lifetime Distributions of Labeled Amorphous Polymers in Bulk

“…The microstructure of a film made with a single amorphous polymer is expected to be homogeneous, above a certain length scale. Nevertheless, a single polymer is a polydisperse mixture formed by chains of different length that, in principle, i) may be interpenetrated totally or only to a certain extent, [8][9][10][11][12][13] ii) may have preferential positions with respect to polymerair and support-polymer interfaces, [14][15][16] iii) may have different proportions of liquid-like and solid-like domains, [17][18][19] and that, even, iii) may show partially ordered domains. [20][21][22] Thus, a certain heterogeneous microstructure must be expected even in the simplest polymer system: a single polymer sample in the bulk amorphous state.…”

“…[20][21][22] Thus, a certain heterogeneous microstructure must be expected even in the simplest polymer system: a single polymer sample in the bulk amorphous state. Several models have been proposed for the amorphous polymer state [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] but currently, the most widely accepted considers that it is formed by interpenetrating random coils having unperturbed dimensions, as in θ solvents. 23 Only a few techniques give information on the microstructure of bulk amorphous polymer samples, at the molecular level.…”