HYDROGEN-BONDING IN TERNARY POLYMER BLEND SYSTEMS - DETERMINATION OF ASSOCIATION PARAMETERS

The polymer blend system consisting of poly(4-vinylphenol)(PVPh), poly(vinylacetate)(PVAc), and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) represents a rare case of a ternary system in which each binary pair is miscible in the amorphous state at 150-degrees-C. Using the concept of competing equilibria, we show that the equilibrium constant describing hydrogen bonding between the OH group of PVPh and the ether oxygen of PEO can be determined from quantitative infrared spectroscopic analysis of the fraction of hydrogen-bonded PVAc carbonyl groups in single-phase ternary compositions rich in PVPh.