Baroplastic materials processing

GPC measurements of the starting and the recycled baroplastic materials (PI to P8) show no significant change inM and polydispersity indicating that the processing can be carried out without any degradation. The representative GPC traces can be seen in Figure 9 fortri-block copolymer (P2). 

As can be seen in Figure 6, DSC heat flow of the 5 times recycled material show both components Tfs and a mixed-phase Tg around 47 °C similar to the initial processed material. This observation also indicates that the recycled baroplastic materials maintain a mixed morphology (the mixture of ordered and disordered structure). 

It was also shown that baroplastic materials can be used as a processing aid to process high Tg homopolymer such as polystyrene (PS). To optimize the conditions, polystyrene and baroplastic materials in powder form were blended at different compositions and pressed using compression or extrading at room temperature. The results indicate that a room temperature moldable polystyrene/baroplastic blend can be obtained at 50 wt% baroplastic content with the di-block, tri-block and star-block copolymers. Figure 10 shows that the 50 wt% blend of PS (45K) and 4-arm star-block copolymer (98K, P8) can be... 

Baroplastic di-, tri- and star-block copolymers were shown to act as processing aids in the processing of homo-polystyrene. Detailed studies with different baroplastic materials as processing aids and the mechanical properties of the obtained materials are under investigation. 

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