Self-adhesion of amorphous polymers and their miscible blends

Abstract

The amorphous film surfaces of polystyrene (PS), poly(2,6-dimethyl 1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO), and their miscible blends are brought into overlap contact below the glass transition temperature T g for 10 min and 24 h in order to obtain PS—PS, PPO—PPO, and blend—blend self-adhesive joints. It is shown that after the contact of the blend surfaces, i.e., when the molecules of both PS and PPO are present at the interface, it is possible to attain higher values of shear strength as compared with those at PS—PS and PPO—PPO interfaces. This points to the contribution of a specific interaction between the segments of PS and PPO to the strength development at the interface.