Correlation of thermal, morphological and melt rheological properties of miscible poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(methyl acrylate) and immiscible poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(n‐butyl methacrylate) blends

Abstract

This study presents the correlation of thermal, morphological and melt rheological properties of poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(methyl acrylate) (PEO/PMA) blends and PEO/poly(n‐butyl methacrylate) (PEO/PnBMA) blends. The miscibility and correlation of these properties were assessed through thermal analysis such as glass transition temperature (Tg) and apparent melting temperature (Tm), morphological study and melt rheological analysis of the blends. The results show that PEO/PMA blends are miscible as suggested by the number of Tg values that follow the Fox equation and the development of homogeneous mixtures in the molten state (T = 80 °C). On the other hand, PEO/PnBMA blends are immiscible as shown by the constancy of the Tg values of PEO throughout the blend compositions. The immiscibility was confirmed by optical microscopy which shows the matrix‐droplet and co‐continuous morphologies (i.e. heterogeneous mixtures) in the PEO/PnBMA blends at T = 80 °C. Melt rheological properties of the immiscible PEO/PnBMA blends are affected by the blend compositions and show significant deviation from Maxwell behaviour. Conversely, the rheological properties of the miscible PEO/PMA blends show close to Maxwell behaviour. Hence, the correlation of thermal, morphological and melt rheological studies is discussed for both miscible and immiscible PEO/polyacrylate blends. © 2023 Society of Industrial Chemistry.

Special issue: visionary polymer research for a better world. The professor R.G. ‘Dick’ Jones commemorative issue

“…His personality explains the great breadth and reach of the papers that we have in this series 6–15 . I’d like to mention some of these briefly, as all are excellent and so very well speak for themselves.…”

“…His personality explains the great breadth and reach of the papers that we have in this series. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] I'd like to mention some of these briefly, as all are excellent and so very well speak for themselves. The paper by Graeme Moad reflects with gentle humour on how he, Dick and Aubrey Jenkins, a prior Chair of SPT, struggled with the development of a clear terminology for specific types of controlled chain polymerizations, and more particularly with the term reversible-deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP).…”

“…With her exceptional efficiency she and her colleagues actually submitted two excellent papers when she was still ill, and they were of such quality that after review they were accepted directly. They consider the rheology of blends of PEO and two acrylates, 10 and with lithium perchlorate, a promising material for batteries 11 . Her loss is another terrible blow to the IUPAC community.…”