Blends transparent poly

Pullulan films have several other advantages. The films are colorless, tasteless, odorless, transparent, resistant to oil and grease, and heat sealable. The properties of the films can be modified by chemical modification of pullulan, blending with poly-vinylalcohol, gelatin, or amylose, and by addition of plasticizers. These properties indicate that pullulan can be used as a coating or packaging for foods to prevent their oxidation. This is the only apparent outstanding application for pullulan. 

Fig. 5 Films of intrinsically immiscible polymers with and without promotion by supramolecular linking, (a) Heterogeneous film of plain poly(butylmethacrylate) and polystyrene functionalized with 2,7-diamido-l,8-naphthyridine (DAN), (b) Transparent blend of poly(butylmethacrylate) functionalized with ureidoguanosine (UG) and polystyrene functionalized with DAN, thereby enabling quadruple hydrogen bonding of DAN and UG to facilitate polymer mixing. Reprinted with permission from [101]. Copyright 2006 American Chemical Society...

Considerable quantities of styrene are used in producing copolymerisates and blends, as, for example, in the production of copolymers with acrylonitrile (SAN), terpolymers from styrene/acrylonitrile/butadiene (ABS polymers) or acrylonitrile/styrene/acrylic ester (ASA), etc. The glass transition temperature of poly (styrene), 100 C, can be increased by copolymerization with a-methyl styrene. What are known as high impact poly (styrenes) are incompatible blends with poly(butadiene) or EPDM, which are consequently not transparent, but translucent. For this reason, pure poly (styrenes) are occasionally called crystal poly (styrenes). 

Meng et al. [104] obtained transparent poly(lactic acid) (PLA)Zpoly (butyl acrylate) (PBA) blends for packaging applications. PBA was obtained from butyl acrylate using a free radical polymerization process, in the presence of... 

Acrylate polymers are often used in many applications that require good optical properties. However, they are unsuitable for use in the automotive industry because of their brittle characteristics. Thus, when natural rubber is blended with poly(methyl methacrylate), there is a big improvement in the elasticity of the brittle acrylate polymers. It is of interest that thermoplastic natural rubbers are relatively new products in the rubber industry and are fastgrowing items in the polymer market. The acrylate polymers blended with natural rubber can improve various properties of both the natural rubber and the acrylate polymers such as elasticity, adhesion, processability properties, and transparency. These materials are known for their excellent processability, characteristic of acrylate polymers, and their elasticity property provided by natural rubber, thus they exhibit the typical properties of elastomeric materials and can be processed with thermoplastic processing equipment used to prepare acrylate polymers. Many of their interesting properties have been widely developed for several industrial applications such as in the automotive industry, household appliances, medical devices, electrical cables, and headphone cables. ... 

PEO blends with poly(ether sidfone) (PES) exhibit miscibility with a lower critical solution temperature slightly above the PEO melting point [198, 199]. The addition of PES to PEO reduces the overall crystaUization rate and spherulitic growth rate as expected from the combination of miscibility and the high Tg of PES (220 °C) [200]. The phenolphthalein poly(ether ether sidfone) (PES-C) was also shown to be miscible with PEO with a lower critical solution temperature [201 ]. PEO crystaUinity was observed at PEO > 50 wt% and all films were transparent above the PEO melting point, but became turbid when heated above the lest phase boundary. 

It has been shown that the extreme enhancement of strain at break for blends polycarbonate/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PC/PET) is due to the corresponding structural changes of the indicated blends, which are characterized by their structure fractal dimension variation. The blends deformability rise can be achieved by enhancement of either Flory-Hug-gins interaction parameter, or shear strength of their autohesional contact. The transparence threshold of macromolecular coils achievement results in sharp reduction of strain at break, that is, its decrease practically up to zero. 

Blending of ABS with an acrylic material such as poly(methyl methacrylate) can in some cases allow a matching of the refractive indices of the rubbery and glassy phases and providing that there is a low level of contaminating material such as soap and an absence of insoluble additives a reasonable transparent ABS-type polymer may be obtained. More sophisticated are the complex terpolymers and blends of the MBS type considered below. Seldom used on their own, they are primarily of use as impact modifiers for unplasticised PVC. 

We have recently initiated our investigation of blends by examining the compatibility between our modified polymer sample 4 and poly(methyl methacrylate). Mixtures with a composition of between 10% and 30% of sample 4 yield compatible blends which are transparent under a polarized light microscope, and are characterized by a single Tg. Mixtures richer than 60% of 4 undergo complete phase separation. 

However, even at relatively low SAN levels, the blends can become hazy or opaque. Transparent compositions can be obtained by using a poly(siloxane)/PC copolymer instead of pure PC (25). Thin-walled articles can be successfully fabricated from such a composition. The SAN should not contain more than 25% of AN. 

It is surprising that poly(siloxane)/PC copolymer and SAN can form a transparent blend because the refractive index of poly(di-methyl siloxane) (PDMS) is around 1.4, which is very different from that of SAN (25). Moreover, PDMS can form a transparent blend with SAN that would not form a transparent blend with PC. Refractive indices of some polymers are summarized in Table 10.6. 

The homopolymers poly(methyl methacrylate) and poly-(ethyl methacrylate) are compatible with poly(vinylidene fluoride) when blended in the melt. True molecular com-patibility is indicated by their transparency and a single, intermediate glass transition temperature for the blends. The Tg results indicate plasticization of the glassy methacrylate polymers by amorphous poly(vinylidene fluoride). The Tg of PVdF is consistent with the variation of Tg with composition in both the PMMA-PVdF and PEMA-PVdF blends when Tg is plotted vs. volume fraction of each component. PEMA/PVdF blends are stable, amorphous systems up to at least 1 PVdF/I PEMA on a weight basis. PMMA/ blends are subject to crystallization of the PVdF component with more than 0.5 PVdF/1 PMMA by weight. This is an unexpected result. 

Mixtures of poly(vinylidene fluoride) with poly (methyl methacrylate) and with poly (ethyl methacrylate) form compatible blends. As evidence of compatibility, single glass transition temperatures are observed for the mixtures, and transparency is observed over a broad range of composition. These criteria, in combination, are acceptable evidence for true molecular intermixing (1, 19). These systems are particularly interesting in view of Bohns (1) review, in which he concludes that a compatible mixture of one crystalline polymer with any other polymer is unlikely except in the remotely possible case of mixed crystal formation. In the present case, the crystalline PVdF is effectively dissolved into the amorphous methacrylate polymer melt, and the dissolved, now amorphous, PVdF behaves as a plasticizer for the glassy methacrylate polymers. 

Table II. Typical Physical Properties of Injection-Molded Transparent Saturated Acrylic Poly blends ...

The Ni and Pt complexes can also be incorporated into polymer films of quaternized poly(vinylpyridine) (PVP) and deposited onto the transparent electrode (84). Photocurrents are enhanced to microamps (pA), an increase that may be attributed to either the effect of immobilization of the complexes near the electrode surface or an increase of the excited-state lifetimes in the polymer matrix. However, the effective concentrations of the complexes in this study were much greater than for the acetonitrile solutions in their earlier work. The polymer films are not stable to continuous photolysis, and voltammograms of the films are quite sensitive to anions used in the supporting electrolyte. The system can be stabilized by using a polymer blend of PVP and a copolymer containing quaternary ammonium ion and including [Fe(CN)6]4- in the electrolyte solution (85). Upon irradiation of the visible MLCT bands of [M(mnt)2]2 (M = Ni, Pt), photocurrents are produced. The mechanism (Scheme 4) is believed to involve photooxidation of the metal bis(dithiolene) triplet state by the Sn02 electrode, followed by [Fe(CN)6]4 reduction of the monoanion, with completion of the ET cycle as ferricyanide, Fe(CN)6 3, diffuses to the other electrode and is reduced. 

Starting from the assumption that the geometry relaxation after excitation is of primary importance with respect to the luminescence response, we decided to employ a solid polymer matrix to suppress conformational changes of the oligomers. For the measurements, dilute blends with polysulfone as the transparent host matrix were prepared. In Figure 16-13, the PL decay curves for the two cyano compounds in both chloroform and polysulfone are presented, as are the PL spectra of Ooct-OPV5-CN in chloroform and poly sulfone [69]. 

Many approaches have been developed for the production of ionic liquid-polymer composite membranes. For example, Doyle et al. [165] prepared RTILs/PFSA composite membranes by swelling the Nafion with ionic liquids. When 1-butyl, 3-methyl imidazolium trifluoromethane sulfonate was used as the ionic liquid, the ionic conductivity ofthe composite membrane exceeded 0.1 S cm at 180 °C. A comparison between the ionic liquid-swollen membrane and the liquid itself indicated substantial proton mobility in these composites. Fuller et al. [166] prepared ionic liquid-polymer gel electrolytes by blending hydrophilic RTILs into a poly(vinylidene fiuoridej-hexafluoropropylene copolymer [PVdF(HFP)] matrix. The gel electrolytes prepared with an ionic liquid PVdF(HFP) mass ratio of 2 1 exhibited ionic conductivities >10 Scm at room temperature, and >10 Scm at 100 °C. When Noda and Watanabe [167] investigated the in situ polymerization of vinyl monomers in the RTILs, they produced suitable vinyl monomers that provided transparent, mechanically strong and highly conductive polymer electrolyte films. As an example, a 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate network polymer in which BPBF4 was dissolved exhibited an ionic conductivity of 10 S cm at 30 °C. 

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