Effect of composition on the linear viscoelastic behavior and morphology of PMMA/PS and PMMA/PP blends

Here, the effect of concentration on the morphology and dynamic behavior of polymethylmethacrylate/polystyrene (PMMA/PS), for PS with two different molecular weight, and polymethylmethacrylate/polypropylene (PMMA/PP) blends was studied. The blends concentrations ranged from 5% to 30% of the dispersed phase (PS or PP). The dynamic data were analyzed to study the possibility of inferring the interfacial tension between the components of the blend from their rheological behavior using Palierne [Palierne JF. Rheol Acta 1990;29:204-14] [1] and Bousmina [Bousmina M. Acta 1999;38:73-83] [2] emulsion models. The relaxation spectrum of the blends was also studied. The dynamic behavior of 85/15 PS/PMMA blend were studied as a function of temperature. It was possible to fit both Palierne and Bousmina's emulsion models to the dynamic data of PMMA/PS blends, to obtain the interfacial tension of the blend. This was not the case for PMMA/PP. The relaxation spectrum of both blends was used to obtain the interfacial tension between the components of the blends. The values of interfacial tension calculated were shown to decrease when the concentration of the blends increased. It was shown using morphological analysis that this phenomenon can be attributed to the coalescence of the dispersed phase during dynamic measurements that occurs for large dispersed phase concentration. When the 'coalesced' morphology is taken into account in the calculations the interfacial tension inferred from rheological measurement did not depend on the concentration of the blend used. The values of interfacial tension found analyzing the dynamic behavior of one of the PMMA/PS blend were shown to decrease with temperature.