Generation of Compositional‐Gradient Structures in Biodegradable, Immiscible, Polymer Blends by Intermolecular Hydrogen‐Bonding Interactions

Abstract

A biodegradable, immiscible poly(butylenes adipate‐co‐butylenes terephthalate) [P(BA‐co‐BT)]/poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) polymer blend film with compositional gradient in the film‐thickness direction has been successfully prepared in the presence of a low‐molecular‐weight compound 4,4′‐thiodiphenal (TDP), which is used as a miscibility‐enhancing agent. The miscibilities of the P(BA‐co‐BT)/PEO/TDP ternary blend films and the P(BA‐co‐BT)/PEO/TDP gradient film were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The compositional gradient structure of the P(BA‐co‐BT)/PEO/TDP (46/46/8 w/w/w) film has been confirmed by microscopic mapping measurement of Fourier‐transform infrared spectra and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. We have developed a new strategy for generating gradient‐phase structures in immiscible polymer‐blend systems by homogenization, i.e., adding a third agent that can enhance the miscibility of the two immiscible polymers through simultaneous formation of hydrogen bonds with two component polymers.

A unique behavior of water drops induced by low-density polyethylene surface with a sharp wettability transition

“…Gradient surfaces have attracted much attention because of their numerous practical applications, such as investigations of biocompatible materials, diagnostics, nanotribology, microfluidics, or combinatorial experiment design [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Recently, one of the most important issues is to control the motions of liquid drops on a surface with a wettability gradient [7,8,12,13].…”

Effect of annealing on self-organized gradient film obtained from poly(3-[tris(trimethylsilyloxy)silyl] propyl methacrylate-co-methyl methacrylate)/poly(methyl methacrylate-co-n-butyl acrylate) blend latexes

“…FGMs are of interest to the study of orchestrated responsive behaviors, aerospace materials, and photoelectric and nuclear energy conversion materials [3][4][5][6]. Despite that FGMs are well known in the field of ceramics, metals, and other inorganic materials [7], functional gradient polymeric materials (FGPMs) have been extensively used because of their excellent properties, such as optical properties and mechanical stress relaxation [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

Controlled Synthesis, Characterization and Application of Novel Functional Fluorinated Polymer By Metal-Free Anionic Polymerization

“…There are two main approaches used to modify the surface properties: first, incorporation fluorinated segments in the chain backbone or side chain where the fluorinated segments dominate the surface (6, 7), or the second, blending of fluorinated polymers with acrylic coatings where the surfaces of composite coatings are controlled by the fluorinated chains through surface segregation (8). Polymer blends provide a large variety of functional properties and application depending on structure and properties of the constituents (9,10).The blend methods such as solution (11), melt (12) and self-organization process (13) are widely used to modify the surface properties of the materials. A small amount of fluorinated polymers mixed into other materials can produce very low surface energy surface by segregation fluorinated groups to the surface (14)(15).…”