PMMA/PC Blends: Effect of Mixing Conditions on Compatibility

Abstract

In this work the effect of melt mixing condition and of a trans‐esterification catalyst on miscibility of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/polycarbonate of bisphenol A (PC) blends is studied. In particular, at high temperature chemical reactions between PMMA and PC phases can take place; these strongly change the compatibility in the blend and materials having single Tg can be obtained. FT‐IR analyses, coupled with solvent extraction, suggest that a grafting reaction of PC on PMMA is involved. SEC and DSC data are consistent with spectroscopic results, and some decrement of the molar weight distribution (MWD) of PC phase is observed. On the other hand, the presence of a fraction of modified material having higher MWD of starting PMMA is also noticed. The single Tg characteristic of some materials has been confirmed by experimental data of structural relaxation performed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). These materials showed optical clarity and the morphological analysis performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirm the homogeneity of these materials.

Effect of compatibilizer on compatibility and pervaporation performance of PC/PHEMA blend membranes

“…PC modification by polymer blending has also been carried out, and majority of the studies on this are about melt mixing of PC and other polymers with and without a compatibilizing agent [5,8,[11][12][13][14][15][25][26][27]; relatively few studies are on solution blending [2,[28][29][30]. Limited investigations have extended their discussion to include the use of free volume information in examining the compatibility in PC blend membranes [27,[30][31][32], and the pervaporation performance of these blend membranes is yet to be reported.…”

“…Most studies on the compatibility in polymer blends involve the preparative method of melt mixing (without use of a solvent) [3][4][5]7,8,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]; rather few researches deal with solution blending (use of a solvent to dissolve the polymers) [2,6,22,23]. These studies commonly utilize analytical and conventional techniques [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][11][12][13][14][15]22].…”

“…These studies commonly utilize analytical and conventional techniques [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][11][12][13][14][15]22]. On a molecular level of analyzing compatibility, however, a sophisticated probe, positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS), should be used.…”

The Morphological properties of SnCl2·2H2O-modified PC/PMMA blends

“…Phase morphologies of PC/PMMA blend systems have been extensively investigated by various researchers [9][10][11], which depend on the methods of preparation. For example, Montaudo et al [12] prepared a transparent homogeneous PC/PMMA blend containing 1 % (wt) of SnO-Bu 2 as esterexchange catalyst, which was prepared by casting at 45 °C for 24 h and followed by further casting at 80 °C for 24 h using o-dichlorobenzene/chloroform (DCB/CHCl 3 ) (50/50 v/v) mixture as solvent.…”

Specific interactions in partially miscible polycarbonate (PC)/poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) blends

“…PC/PMMA blends are generally prepared by melt extrusion [13][14][15][16][17][18] or solution casting [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] techniques with or without compatibilizers. The issue of PC/PMMA blend miscibility has been extensively investigated by many polymer research groups.…”