MORPHOLOGIES OF MECHANICALLY MIXED AMORPHOUS BLENDS BEFORE AND AFTER ANNEALING

The morphologies of amorphous polymer blends produced by extrusion were investigated by transmission electron microscopy. Polymers with similar viscosities, i.e. poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polystyrene (PS), and random copolymers P(S(x)MMA(1-x)) were mixed pairwise, in different compositions. Finely dispersed phase structures were produced in the blends, with domains in the submicron range. The structure patterns were considerably perturbed by the stress fields in the extruder. Domain-matrix and co-continuous morphologies were obtained, in a distribution controlled mainly by the viscosity ratio. Annealing after extrusion led to structure coarsening, whereby the patterns were changed until a steady state was established. Sometimes, matrix inversion was observed.