Local compositional fluctuations in PPO/HIPSand PPO/SBS blends

Abstract

AbstractSolid‐state NMR relaxation has been used to explore the distribution of components in poly(phenylene oxide) (PPO) high impact polystyrene (HIPS) and PPO/poly(styrene‐b‐butadiene‐b‐styrene) (SBS) blends. The nuclear relaxation of PPO in the former system is single exponential for all compositions, but the relaxation of PS in the blend is simple exponential only when the PPO content is low but is otherwise nonexponential. The nuclear magnetization decay curves were analyzed in terms of statistical compositional fluctuation at the scale of spin diffusion distances of several nm. Distribution functions for nuclear relaxation and for blend composition have been derived. Extraction of low molecular weight occluded PS from HIPS resulted in blends having reduced homogeneity. Addition of low molecular weight PS enhanced homogeneity in both the PPO/HIPS and PPO/SBS blends. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.