Minimizing the concentration of diblock copolymer needed to organize blends of immiscible polymers

PMSE 45

Megan L. Ruegg, mruegg@berkeley.edu1, Benedict Reynolds1, David J. Lohse, djlohse@erenj.com2, and Nitash P. Balsara, nbalsara@berkeley.edu3. (1) Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, D72 Tan Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, (2) Corporate Research Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, 1545 Route 22 East, Annandale, NJ 08801-3059, (3) Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Sciences Division, University of California, Berkeley, 201 Gillman Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720
The phase behavior of A/B/A-C polymer blends was analyzed with scattering experiments and mean field theories. The design of the polymeric A-C surfactant is based upon oil (A) / water (B) / alkyl poly glycol ether surfactant (A-C) systems, and in both the polymer and small molecule systems C exhibits attractive interactions with B and repulsive interactions with A. For the homopolymers utilized in this study, ΧN is equal to 2.1-2-6 when T=30-200°C, thus the homopolymers are weakly segregated (Χ is the Flory-Huggins interaction parameter and N is the number of repeat units per chain). Single phase systems such as lamellae, microemulsions, and homogeneous phases were observed with as little as 1 vol. % diblock copolymer in the blend. Mean field theory calculations predicting the domain size and the phase boundary between macrophase separated and single phases were in excellent agreement with experimental data.
 

ICI Student Award Symposium
1:30 PM-4:50 PM, Sunday, 10 September 2006 San Francisco Marriott -- Salon B3, Oral

Division of Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering

The 232nd ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, September 10-14, 2006