Characterization of Electron Beam Irradiated Poly Vinyl Alcohol/Poly Ethylene Glycol Blends

Abstract

Poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) and poly ethylene glycol (PEG) blends were prepared and irradiated with different electron beam irradiation doses. The influence of the irradiation dose, and PEG content on the physico-chemical properties was investigated. The data regarding gel content demonstrated that the radiation-induced crosslinking of PVA and PVA/PEG samples increased as a result of increasing irradiation dose and decreasing PEG content. The swelling volume ratio shows an opposite behavior. The XRD parameters (crystllinity percent and d-spacing values) show a decreasing behavior for PVA and PVA/PEG blends as a result of either irradiation or blending PVA matrix with PEG. The DSC data illustrate a decreasing trend in melting point, glass transition temperature, and degree of crystallinity with increasing irradiation dose or PEG content. and unhydrolyzation properties, which makes it more environmentally friendly. In addition, PEG is more common which could reduce the cost of experiments and simplify the experiments process. PVA and PEG blends have been widely explored as water soluble polymers for numerous industrial, biomedical and pharmaceutical applications due to the advantages of nontoxic, non-carcinogenic and bioadhesive properties [8].The miscibility between the constituents of a polymer mixture is an important factor in the development of new materials based on polymeric blends. In miscible polymeric blends, there are often specific interactions between functional groups or polymer segments that lead to decrease of the Gibbs energy of mixing. Miscible polymer blends present only one phase, while immiscible blends present separated domains, and the final properties of polymer blends are directly related to the degree of their miscibilities [9]. In immiscible polymer blends, their physical properties are poor compared with those of parent polymers because of phase separations arising from weak interaction at the boundaries of component polymers. The miscibility and the physical properties of polymer blends can be improved by applying intermolecular interaction such as hydrogen bonding and dipole-dipole interaction between blend components. Intermolecular hydrogen bonding interaction by hydroxyl, halogen, carbonyl, and amide groups leads to the improvement of miscibility based on favorable enthalpic interaction between polymer chains. Addition of compatibilizer into immiscible polymer blends also improves the miscibility and the physical properties [6,[9][10][11][12]. For polymer-polymer miscibility investigations, the most useful techniques are electronic microscopy [13], spectroscopy [14], and thermal analysis [15]. Electron beam irradiation of polymer blends has been employed in improving the properties and miscibility of blends. High energy irradiation produces free radicals that can readily interact with each other forming crosslinking and strengthening the polymer structure. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of electron beam irradiation on the structural, physical and chemical propert...

Preparation of Miscible PVA/PEG Blends and Effect of Graphene Concentration on Thermal, Crystallization, Morphological, and Mechanical Properties of PVA/PEG (10 wt%) Blend

“…For pure PVA, the spectra show a broad band centered at 3300 cm −1 associated with the stretching vibration of hydroxyl groups (-OH) present in the PVA structure. Similar results are reported by others [2,32,36]. Moreover, the FTIR spectra for all blends displayed almost similar absorption bands as pure PVA in the entire wavelength range, which indicates that the main functional groups in PEG and PVA are preserved [37].…”

“…The miscibility is an important factor in the study of polymer blends as the final properties of the blends are directly related to the degree of their miscibilities [2]. Generally, miscible polymer blends show one phase while immiscible blends show separated domains.…”

“…The DSC experiments were carried out under nitrogen atmosphere with the flow rate of nitrogen gas set at 50 mL/min. Integration of the DSC thermograms over the plot range of 190-240°C allows determination of the heats of fusion [2,16]. The degree of crystallinity (X c ) was calculated using the values of the measured heats of fusion according to (1) [27]:…”

“…The experimental data of the tensile strength were analyzed by comparing to some predicted models to understand the formation of weak structure in the composite [29,30]. The tensile strength of the composites was predicted using the following empirical equation developed by Nicolais and Narkis [31] as described in (2).…”

“…Applications include grocery, merchandise, trash bags, food containers, caps and closures, plastic fuel tanks, drink cups, home appliances, cooking utensils, children's toys, and construction materials, among others. Water-soluble polymers such as PEG and PVA and their blends have found many applications such as packaging [1], cosmetics [2], and emulsifiers and adhesives [3], among others. PVA and its composites have been extensively studied by our group [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”