Ternary Polymer Composites Research Articles

Phase Separation in Binary and Ternary Polymer Composites Studied with Electronic Excitation Transport

Time-resolved fluorescence polarization anisotropy decay measurements are used to observe the process of phase separation of molecularly mixed polymer blends. The binary blends are composed of a low concentration of poly(methyl methacrylate-co-2-vinylnaphthalene) (PMMA2VN) in poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc). The small number of 2VN groups on the PMMA2VN chains act as fluorescent chromophores. Electronic excitation transport (EET) among these chromophores contributes to the decay of their fluorescence polarization anisotropy, which is measured with time-correlated single photon counting. Since EET is highly sensitive to the distances between chromophores, it reflects their spatial distribution and can reveal both the isolated-chain structure and the aggregation of polymer chains in the blend on the nanometer distance scale. Blend samples are prepared by annealing a homogeneous blend at an elevated temperature for a given time and then rapidly quenching the phase-separating material below its glass-transition temperature. The newly formed nanoscopic aggregates frozen in the sample are then investigated with EET. The ternary blends are composed of a very small amount of PMMA2VN and a larger quantity of PMMA, both in bulk PVAc. In the phase separation of ternary blends, the PMMA2VN component initially partitions with its chromophore-free counterpart, expanding to its i-condition size before continuing to aggregate and eventually separating from the PMMA.

Properties of the interphase in ternary polymer composites

AbstractTernary systems consisting of polypropylene (PP), ethylene‐propylene‐dieneterpolymer (EPDM) and different types of inorganic fillers (kaolin, BaSO4) have been investigated with respect to their mechanical behavior. On the basis of an Interphase model, it was possible using the modified van der Poel equation to describe the temperature dependence of the storage modulus G′(T) and the loss modulus G″(T). The interphase properties G′(T) and G″(T) could be calculated.