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Surface Tension in Polymer Blends of Isotactic Poly(propylene) and Atactic Polystyrene
Author(s) -
Funke Zofia,
Schwinger Christian,
Adhikari Rameshwar,
Kressler Jörg
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/1439-2054(20011201)286:12<744::aid-mame744>3.0.co;2-a
Subject(s) - tacticity , surface tension , materials science , polystyrene , polymer , drop (telecommunication) , polymer chemistry , atmospheric temperature range , polymer blend , composite material , chemical engineering , thermodynamics , copolymer , polymerization , physics , engineering , telecommunications , computer science
The surface tension of atactic polystyrene (PS), isotactic poly(propylene) (PP) and PS/PP‐blends, and additionally the interfacial tension between PP/PS have been measured in the temperature range between 200 and 280°C using the pendant drop method. Within the temperature range studied, the surface tension decreased linearly with increasing temperature for all systems whereas the surface tension of neat PP is approximately 7 mN/m smaller than the value of PS. The interfacial tension between PS and PP is in the range of approximately 4 mN/m and this indicates a strong incompatibility. It results a heterogeneous PP/PS blend morphology. A significant increase of the surface tension of the blends as a function of composition is observed only when the PS content exceeds 60 wt.‐%. Furthermore, microscopic observations indicate that even if the bulk matrix material is PS, a thin layer of PP can be detected by atomic force microscopy on the droplet surface used for surface tension measurements.