Cocontinuous morphology, polymer blends

Illustrations of Phase Morphology Other Than Cocontinuous in Polymer Blends Including Thermoplastics/Thermoplastics, Thermosets/Thermoplastics... 

See also Carbon monoxide (CO) Cocondensation resins, 15 778-780 Cocontinuous morphology, in polymer blends, 20 329-330... 

Lavorgna, M., Mensitieri, G., Scherillo, G., Shaw, M. T., Swier, S. and Weiss, R. A. 2007. Polymer blend for fuel cells based on SPEKK Effect of cocontinuous morphology on water sorption and proton conductivity. Journal of Polymer Science Part B Polymer Physics 45 395-404. 

At the recent European Symposium on Polymer Blends [59] about half of the contributions dealt with thermodynamic effects on molecular architecture, on polymer morphology, and on processing and performance of polymer blend materials. Although some attention has been focused mainly on the interface (material) in heterogeneous blends, in general most thermodynamic studies of such heterogeneous blends deal with two- or more bulk phases. Essential morphological features such as droplet size, cocontinuous phases, micellar or... 

F. Xiang, Y. Shi, X. Li, T. Huang, C. Chen, Y. Peng, Y. Wang, Cocontinuous morphology of immiscible high density polyethylene/polyamide 6 blend induced by multiwalled carbon nanotubes network. Eur. Polymer J. 48, 350-361 (2012)... 

The detailed morphology of elastomer blends depends on (1) the mixing procedure, (2) the rheology of the blend components, and (3) the interfacial energy. As with other polymer blends, the elastomer of lower viscosity tends to be the continuous phase [26a-b]. Cocontinuous blend morphology is observed only for elastomers with similar viscosities. The viscoelastic forces developed during the formation of the compounded blend from two rheologi-... 

There exist in polymer blends two or three major types of phase morphologies, depending on whether the encapsulated structures (composite droplets) are considered as a class apart. The most common is the droplet-in-matrix (as, for example, Figure 1.3), the (droplet-in-droplet)-in-matrix (as, for example. Figure 1.4), and the cocontinuous phase morphology where both phases are mutually interconnected throughout the whole volume of the blend (as, for example. Figures 1.5 and 1.6). 

Cocontinuous Morphologies in Melt-Mixed Polymer Blends... 

The cocontinuous morphology of PS/PE, PE/PA, PE/PP polymer blends was investigated by Willemse and co-workers [35]. Based on their work, it was found that the interfacial tension was an important parameter in the model as it determined the extended structure, especially its stability. On the other hand, the interfacial tension was responsible for the determination of the phase dimension. It was also concluded that a lower interfacial tension resulted in a broader range of cocontinuity, however, small regions could be formed with the possibility of full cocontinuity in areas of high interfacial tension [35]. 

The microscopic morphology of polymer blends results basically from the incompatibility of the components, while other factors that influence blend morphology include the processing conditions (e.g., application of shear forces, use of compatibilizer, cooling rate from the melt). Two types of morphology may be observed, namely cocontinuous and dispersed the latter type is usually observed when one of the components is in a minority. 

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