Effects of tetramethylpolycarbonate‐block‐poly(styrene‐co‐acrylonitrile) copolymers containing various amounts of acrylonitrile on the interfacial properties of polycarbonate and poly(styrene‐co‐acrylonitrile) blends

Abstract

Tetramethylpolycarbonate-block-poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) (TMPC-block-SAN) block copolymers containing various amounts of acrylonitrile (AN) were examined as compatibilizers for blends of polycarbonate (PC) with poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) (SAN) copolymers. To explore the effects of block copolymers on the compatibility of PC/SAN blends, the average diameter of the dispersed particles in the blend was measured with an image analyzer, and the interfacial properties of the blends were analyzed with an imbedded fibre retraction technique and an asymmetric double-cantilever beam fracture test. Reduction in the average diameter of dispersed particles and effective improvement in the interfacial properties was observed by adding TMPC-block-SAN copolymers as compatibilizer of PC/SAN blend. TMPC-block-SAN copolymer was effective as a compatibilizer when the difference in the AN content of SAN copolymer and that of SAN block in TMPC-block-SAN copolymer was less than about 10 wt%.