Effect of polymer compatibility on surface enrichment in polymer blends

Abstract

The surface composition of blends of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) with polystyrene (PS), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and random copolymers of styrene and methyl methacrylate (MMAS) has been studied as a function of blend and copolymer compositions. In the case of homopolymer blends, only the incompatible blend PEO/PS showed significant surface enrichment in PS following annealing at temperatures above the T g of the two constituents and the T m of PEO. The compatible system PEO/PMMA presented a mixed surface. Surface enrichment in the MMAS copolymers was observed in all PEO/MMAS blends with styrene contents in excess of 2% w/w. This has been attributed to the incompatibility between the PEO and the MMAS copolymers as shown by the ternary phase diagram PEO/MMAS/CHCl 3 and the melting-point depression of the PEO-rich phases with varying copolymer composition and concentration. Angle-dependent X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy provided an indication of the depth-concentration profile of the blend. The results of these measurements demonstrate that increased styrene content in the MMAS copolymer produces deeper concentration profiles, which reached down to 69 Å from the surface. Mean-field calculations of the depth-concentration profile for a selected system gave very good agreement with the experimental data.