A DSC study of miscibility and phase separation in crystalline polymer blends of phenolphthalein poly (ether ether sulfone) and poly(ethylene oxide)

Abstract

The miscibility of blends of phenolphthalein poly(ether ether sulfone) (PES-C) and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) was established on the basis of the thermal analysis results. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies showed that the PES- C/PEO blends prepared by casting from N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) possessed a single, composition-dependent glass transition temperature (Tg), and thus that PES- C and PEO are miscible in the amorphous state at all compositions at lower tempera- ture. At higher temperature, the blends underwent phase separation, and the PES-C/ PEO blend system was found to display a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) behavior. The phase separation process in the blends has also been investigated by using DSC. Annealed at high temperatures, the PES-C/PEO blends exhibited signifi- cant changes of thermal properties, such as the enthalpy of crystallization and fusion, temperatures of crystallization and melting, depending on blend composition when phase separation occurred. These changes reflect different characteristics of phase structure in the blends, and were taken as probes to determine phase boundary. From both the thermal analysis and optical microscopy, the phase diagram of the blend system was established. q 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 35: 1383- 1392, 1997