The Effects of Copolymer Compatibilizers on the Phase Structure Evolution in Polymer Blends—A Review

Abstract

This paper summarizes the results of studies describing the effect of block and graft copolymers on the phase structure formation and evolution in immiscible polymer blends. The main phenomenological rules for prediction of the copolymer compatibilization efficiency are briefly described and compared with selected experimental data. The results of the theories of equilibrium distribution of a copolymer between the blend interface and the bulk phases and its effect on the blend interfacial tension are summarized. The theories of the compatibilizer effect on the droplet breakup in flow are analyzed. The mechanisms of the copolymer effect on the coalescence of droplets in flow are compared and their effect on the droplet size is shown. The problems of reliable description of the effect of a copolymer on the coalescence in quiescent state are presented. Obstacles to derivation of a realistic theory of the copolymer effect on the competition between the droplet breakup and coalescence are discussed. Selected experimental data are compared with the theoretical results.

Modifications of simple models of polymer blend compatibilization using block copolymer

“…The latter was denoted as Noolandi in refs. [4,6,20,21], while it is denoted as the Noolandi-Retsos in this paper. The copolymer length with the most effective compatibilization was shifted to half of that in previous models.…”

“…Block copolymers are mostly substantially more expensive than compatibilized homopolymers, and therefore, the choice of the most efficient compatibilizer is of great practical importance. Results of experimental studies indicate that the effect of a copolymer on the equilibrium interfacial tension of a blend correlates quite well with its effect on the blend phase structure and mechanical properties in spite of the fact that the whole effect of a copolymer is complex [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

“…Efficient compatibilization of immiscible polymer blends is one of the most important tasks in polymer material science. It was found that block copolymers with blocks that are identical to, miscible with, or adhere to related components of polymer blends are proper compatibilizers [1][2][3][4]. Block copolymers are mostly substantially more expensive than compatibilized homopolymers, and therefore, the choice of the most efficient compatibilizer is of great practical importance.…”

“…Numerous studies have paid attention to the theoretical prediction of the effect of block copolymers on the interfacial tension in immiscible polymer blends. Their results are summarized and discussed in [4,6,12,13]. Leibler's theory [14], comparing the chemical potential of a copolymer in the interfacial brush with that in the blend bulk phases, is frequently used for the calculation of the effect of block copolymers on the interfacial tension in strongly immiscible polymer blends.…”

Fused Deposition Modeling of Single-Use Plastic Alloy

“…Plastics are not necessarily disordered or downgraded after mixing. In fact, plastic alloy is a promising design to improve the overall performances of mixed plastics [21][22][23], in which one component is compatible well with the other one. In addition, nanoclays (NCs) are widely used to fabricate polymer composites [24].…”