DIFFUSION EFFECTS IN BLENDS OF LINEAR WITH BRANCHED POLYETHYLENES

In this paper a method of estimating diffusion rates in suitable polymer blend systems is described. Recent studies of blends of linear with branched polyethylenes have shown that in the melt the components mix under some conditions of temperature and composition, but segregate under others. In particular, for a large number of systems, blends with low linear content are demixed in the melt at the highest temperature at which crystallization is observed, but can be cooled into a metastable state in which the melt remixes before crystallization takes place. Such remixing is the subject of the present paper. The times of melt mixing were assessed from the thermograms and the distances over which the linear material diffused were assessed from electron micrographs of replicas. Combining this information, estimates were obtained for the diffusion rates of the various polymers (with molecular weights of between 2 x 10(6) and 2550) in the branched matrix. These diffusion rates vary with the inverse square of the molecular weight of the linear polymer, and are close to the self-diffusion rates expected from the Klein and Briscoe equation.