Viscoelastic and adhesive properties of PMMA-b-PtBA with tackifier

The study of adhesive behavior of poly(methyl methacrylate)-b-poly(t-butyl acrylate) (PMMA-b-PtBA) diblock copolymers is rare in literature. In this study, we prepared a PMMA-b-PtBA diblock copolymer (B-16) by the anionic polymerization technique and compounded it with various amounts of tackifier (Staybelite Ester 3 synthetic resin of Hercules Inc., a triethylene glycol ester of partially hydrogenated wood rosin). The B-16 contained 10 parts of tackifier per hundred parts of polymer (phr), which has a better storage modulus (G') at 120 °C and 0.1 rad/s than counterpart homopolymer PMMAs of different average molecular weights, containing the same phr of tackifier. Increasing the molecular weight of homopolymer PMMA samples (containing 10 phr of tackifier), the G' value at 120 °C increases toward the optimum region. The peel performance relates rather well to the viscoelastic property.