Shear-induced fractal morphology of immiscible reactive polymer blends

The origin of shear-induced morphology of two-component immiscible reactive polymer blends is studied by the example of grafting and crosslinking multilayer systems of statistic terpolymer of ethylene, butyl acrylate, and maleic anhydride and statistic copolymers including polyamide and acid groups terminated by acid and/or amine groups. It is found that in contrast to the non-reactive system, the reactive polymer blends display pronounced hydrodynamic instabilities followed by the formation of branched fingers. The observed morphologies are shown to evolve towards the fractal structures. Their fractal dimensions depend on the type of chemical interactions between the blend components resulting either in grafted or crosslinked interfaces. It is shown that the obtained morphologies resemble the Laplacian growth patterns. A simple model of the interface chemical modifications is discussed to explain a physical origin of the observed shear-induced finger instability.