Reinforcement of adhesion and development of morphology at polymer–polymer interface via reactive compatibilization: A review

Abstract

Polymer blending is a common and effective way to develop new materials with desirable physical and mechanical properties. Since most polymer pairs are immiscible, reactive compatibilization has been extensively studied to stabilize morphology of polymer blends and improve their mechanical properties. In the past several years, considerable interest has been expressed in understanding the fundamental kinetics and mechanisms of the interfacial reaction, investigating the reinforcement of the interfacial adhesion and the development of morphological structure at polymer-polymer interface induced by the interfacial reaction. The present review focused on some theoretical and experimental results that include the formation and growth of copolymers at the interface, and also the major factors such as reaction conditions, the concentration and bulk properties of the functionalized polymer, the thermodynamic interaction between the functionalized polymer and the matrix, which can influence the interfacial adhesion and morphological development. POLYM. ENG. SCI

Preparation of polypropylene and polystyrene with NCO and NH2 functional groups and their applications in polypropylene/polystyrene blends

“…PP/PS blends are compatibilized either by adding compatibilizers, such as styrene‐butadiene‐styrene and styrene‐ethylene/butylene‐styrene, or ethylene vinyl acetate block copolymers, such as PP‐graft‐PS (PP‐g‐PS) copolymer, to the blends . However, most block copolymers tend to form micelles in homopolymers rather than locate at the interphase . In this aspect, a reactive compatibilizer is advantageous because the reactive groups can arrive at the interface by diffusion.…”

Plasma and chromic acid treatments of polycarbonate surface to improve coating–substrate adhesion

“…[3,4] In coating deposition on PCs, two issues are particularly important: the deposition technology for protective coatings for large-scale application and the adhesion of coatings on the PC substrate because PC has bad surface wettability and poor interfacial adhesion. [5,6] Surface treatment or modification, such as oxidant etching, mechanical polishing, ultraviolet radiation, plasma activation, and primer layering, is a common approach to improve surface wetting and interfacial adhesion. [7][8][9][10][11] Among these techniques, plasma surface activation [12][13][14] and chromic acid etching [15][16][17] proved to be versatile in surface modification of polymer surface.…”

Influences of hyperbranched polyethylenimine on the reactive compatibilization of polycarbonate/polyamide blends

“…Interfacial interchange reaction are easier to induce interfacial instability than end-coupling reaction, because copolymer was formed and polymer with low molecular weight was released as products of interchange reaction and both species could act as a compatibilizer. If the interfacial areal density of reaction product reached a certain value, the interfacial adhesion will be greatly reduced, leading to an interfacial instability [34] . In fact, the average molar mass between entanglement in PC was determined as 2400, which is equivalent to 9.5 repeating units and abnormally small [35] , so it is reasonable that the G c for samples with high molar mass PC (PC2/aPA/hPEI), was higher than that of PC1/aPA/hPEI and there was no decreasing of G c within the experimental time range.…”