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PMMA‐AES Blends Prepared by in situ Polymerization
Author(s) -
de Carvalho Fabiana Pires,
Gonçalves Maria do Carmo,
Felisberti Maria Isabel
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.201051078
Subject(s) - materials science , copolymer , acrylonitrile , polymerization , polymer chemistry , methyl methacrylate , elastomer , in situ polymerization , styrene , tacticity , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , chemical engineering , composite material , polymer , engineering
Blends of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(acrylonitrile‐ g ‐(ethylene‐ co ‐propylene‐ co ‐diene)‐ g ‐styrene) (AES) were prepared by in situ polymerization. AES, a commercial elastomer obtained by radical copolymerization of styrene and acrylonitrile in the presence of ethylene‐propylene‐diene terpolymer (EPDM), was dissolved in methyl methacrylate and the in situ polymerization was conducted at 60 °C. The blends were characterized by CHN analysis, infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), carbon‐13 nuclear magnetic resonance ( 13 C NMR), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These blends are immiscible and present complex phase behavior. Selective extraction of the blends’ components showed that a fraction of the material is crosslinked and grafting reactions on EPDM chains take place during MMA polymerization. Syndiotactic PMMA was obtained in the presence of AES and this syndiotactic‐specificity increased with increasing amount of AES. The morphology of polymerized specimens showed irregular domains of elastomeric phase and in some cases inclusions of PMMA could be observed.