title: Dilational rheology of monolayers of a miscible polymer blend: from good- to poor-solvent conditions.
abstract: The viscoelastic moduli (elasticity and dilational viscosity) of monolayers of PVAc + P4HS has been studied over a broad frequency range (0.1 mHz-200 kHz) using a combination of relaxation and capillary-waves techniques. The analysis of the surface pressure, the elasticity and the viscosity on the semidilute regime show that the air-water interface is a good solvent for the monolayers of PVAc-rich blends, and a poor (near-Theta) solvent for the monolayers of P4HS-rich blends. The solvent quality changes continuously over a broad concentration range. The results of viscoelastic moduli show that there is a broad relaxation process in the low-frequency range (omega < 1 Hz). While for PVAc-rich monolayers this relaxation process follows the reptation-like behavior described by Noskov, for P4HS-rich monolayers the model does not describe the amplitudes of the different relaxation modes. For PVAc-rich monolayers two processes are clearly distinguished at higher frequencies: one centered at around 500 Hz and another one at around 40 kHz. However, for P4HS-rich monolayers only one broad relaxation mode is found below 1 kHz. The crossover from one type of behavior to the other one takes place in a very narrow blend-composition range, and is not clearly related to the crossover from good- to poor-solvent condition.
authors.affiliation: Departamento Química Física I, Facultad de Química, Universidad Complutense, E-28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rivillon
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Monroy
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ortega
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Rubio