Interfacial Reaction Induced Roughening in Polymer Blends

• Published in: Macromolecules Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 106 - 110
• Main Authors: Lyu, Su-Ping, Cernohous, Jeff J., Bates, Frank S., Macosko, Christopher W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 12.01.1999
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Exact sciences and technology; Organic polymers; Physicochemistry of polymers; Properties and characterization; Structure, morphology and analysis; Polymer blends; Amino group; End group; Methyl methacrylate polymer; Organic anhydride; Thermal reaction; Experimental study; Heterogeneous mixture; Interface structure; Imidation; Morphology; Microroughness; Styrene polymer; Interface reaction; Formation mechanism; Functional group
• ISSN: 0024-9297; 1520-5835
• DOI: 10.1021/ma9810767

Interfacial reaction between two immiscible polymers can cause changes in the interfacial morphology. We demonstrated this using an aliphatic amine terminated polystyrene (PS−NH2) and anhydride terminated poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA−ah). Interfacial morphologies were recorded using transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Coupling of PS−NH2 and PMMA−ah induced flat interfaces to roughen with a magnitude of roughness around a few hundred nanometers. These morphological changes were explained in terms of the decrease of interfacial tension due to the creation of block copolymers and the thermal fluctuation induced deformations at interfaces.