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Vapor sorption and liquid interactions with glassy polyblends of polystyrene and poly(2,6‐dimethyl‐1,4‐phenylene oxide)
Author(s) -
Jacques C. H. M.,
Hopfenberg H. B.,
Stannett V.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.760130202
Subject(s) - polystyrene , materials science , phenylene , oxide , chemical engineering , kinetics , polymer chemistry , desorption , sorption , crystallization , polymer blend , hexane , polymer , composite material , organic chemistry , adsorption , copolymer , chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering , metallurgy
Polystyrene, poly(phenylene oxide), and solution‐cast blends of the parent homopolymers were exposed to normal hexane in the liquid and vapor phase. The kinetics of absorption and desorption, the sorption equilibria, and the kinetics of morphological changes were studied as a function of temperature and blend composition. Absorption kinetics of n ‐hexane vapor in all blends were largely controlled by polymer relaxations. The sorption rates from the vapor phase varied monotonically with blend composition and increased over a range of four orders of magnitude with increasing poly(phenylene oxide) content. The equilibrium n ‐hexane content similarly increased monotonically with poly(phenylene oxide) content although the increase was only by a factor of two over the entire range of compositions. These results were interpreted in light of and were completely consistent with earlier findings with pure polystyrene homopolymer. Films immersed in liquid n ‐hexane produced a white, opaque outer shell surrounding an essentially unaffected central core. The kinetics of this whitening process were much more rapid for each of the homopolymers than the kinetics characterizing morphological changes in the blends. These data suggest that film whitening is caused by crazing in the polystyrene‐rich samples and that solvent‐induced crystallization is involved in the whitening of the poly (phenylene oxide) rich material.