Accessibility of functional groups is an important concept in the
mixing of polymers and
involves factors such as chain connectivity, steric shielding, etc.,
all of which tend to limit the number of
interchain contacts formed. Infrared spectroscopy is well suited
to study functional group accessibility
in carefully selected miscible hydrogen bonded polymer blend systems,
because the fraction of interchain
hydrogen bonded groups can be measured quantitatively. Such
measurements have been made on blends
consisting of a wide range of carbonyl containing (co)polymers
with a 2,3-dimethylbutadiene-stat-4-vinylphenol containing 24 wt % 4-vinylphenol. Evidence has been
obtained for decreasing accessibility
of the carbonyl groups of the poly(n-alkyl
methacrylate)s due to steric shielding from bulky side
groups.
Conversely, when these groups are spaced further apart in an
ethylene-stat-vinyl acetate or ethylene-stat-methyl methacrylate copolymer chain, they become much
more accessible. The effect of functional
group accessibility on the scaling and transferability of self- and
interassociation equilibrium constants
is discussed, together with ramifications in terms of the prediction of
miscibility windows and maps for
hydrogen bonded polymer blends.