title: Suppression of phase coarsening in immiscible, co-continuous polymer blends under high temperature quiescent annealing.
abstract: The properties of polymer blends greatly depend on the morphologies formed during processing, and the thermodynamic non-equilibrium nature of most polymer blends makes it important to maintain the morphology stability to ensure the performance stability of structural materials. Herein, the phase coarsening of co-continuous, immiscible polyamide 6 (PA6)-acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) blends in the melt state was studied and the effect of introduction of nano-silica particles on the stability of the phase morphology was examined. It was found that the PA6-ABS (50/50 w) blend maintained the co-continuous morphology but coarsened severely upon annealing at 230 °C. The coarsening process could be divided into two stages: a fast coarsening process at the initial stage of annealing and a second coarsening process with a relatively slow coarsening rate later. The reduction of the coarsening rate can be explained from the reduction of the global curvature of the interface. With the introduction of nano-silica, the composites also showed two stages of coarsening. However, the coarsening rate was significantly decreased and the phase morphology was stabilized. Rheological measurements indicated that a particle network structure was formed when the concentration of nano-silica particles was beyond 2 wt%. The particle network inhibited the movement of molecular chains and thus suppressed the coarsening process.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, College of Polymer Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065 Sichuan, China. weiyang@scu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xi-Qiang
authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ruo-Han
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Rui-Ying
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.forename: Wen-Rou
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Bang-Hu
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Ming-Bo
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000180:Acrylic Resins / Q000737:chemistry*; D002070:Butadienes / Q000737:chemistry*; D002209:Caprolactam / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry; D006361:Heating; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D044367:Phase Transition; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000180:Acrylic Resins; D002070:Butadienes; D011108:Polymers; D011137:Polystyrenes; C009916:nylon 6; D002209:Caprolactam; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; C024636:ABS resin