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Effect of an organoclay on the reaction‐induced phase‐separation kinetics and morphology of a poly(ether imide)/epoxy mixture
Author(s) -
Peng Mao,
Li Dasong,
Chen Ying,
Zheng Qiang
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.25759
Subject(s) - spinodal decomposition , materials science , organoclay , kinetics , ether , imide , phase (matter) , polymer chemistry , epoxy , scanning electron microscope , chemical engineering , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , composite material , polymer , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , engineering , physics
Abstract Organically modified layered silicates with a hydroxyl‐substituted quaternary ammonium surfactant as the modifier were incorporated into a mixture of poly (ether imide) and epoxy with 4,4′‐diaminodiphenyl sulfone as the hardener. The influence of the organically modified layered silicates on the reaction‐induced phase‐separation kinetics and morphology of the poly(ether imide)/epoxy mixture was investigated with time‐resolved small‐angle light scattering, phase‐contrast microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The phase‐separation kinetics were analyzed by means of the temporal evolution of scattering vector q m and scattering intensity I m at the scattering peak. The organically modified layered silicates obviously facilitated an earlier onset of phase separation but reduce the phase‐separation rate and greatly retarded the domain‐coarsening process in the late stage of spinodal decomposition. The temporal evolution of both q m and I m followed the power law q m ∼ ( t − t os ) −α and I m ∼( t − t os ) −β , where t is the reaction time, t os is the onset time of phase separation, and α and β are growth exponents. For the samples filled with organically modified layered silicates, α crossed over from 0 to about 1/3, following Binder–Stauffer cluster dynamics, and an interconnected phase structure was observed for cure temperatures ranging from 120 to 230°C. For the unfilled samples, the interconnected phase structure was observed only at cure temperatures below 140°C. At temperatures above 150°C, α crossed over from 0 to 1/3 < α ≤ 1 under the interfacial tension effect, following Siggia's theory, and the domain‐coarsening rate was very fast; this resulted in macroscopic epoxy‐rich domains. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 1205–1214, 2007