Compositional factors, glass transition

The glass transition temperature of a random copolymer usually falls between those of the corresponding homopolymers since the copolymers will tend to have intermediate chain stiffness and interchain attraction. Where these are the only important factors to be considered a linear relationship between Tg and copolymer composition is both reasonable to postulate and experimentally verifiable. One form of this relationship is given by the equation... 

In particular, blends of PVDF with a series of different polymers (polymethylmethacrylate [100-102], polyethylmethacrylate [101], polyvinyl acetate [101]), for suitable compositions, if quenched from the melt and then annealed above the glass transition temperature, yield the piezoelectric [3 form, rather than the normally obtained a form. The change in the location of the glass transition temperature due to the blending, which would produce changes in the nucleation rates, has been suggested as responsible for this behavior. A second factor which was identified as controlling this behavior is the increase of local /rans-planar conformations in the mixed amorphous phase, due to specific interactions between the polymers [102]. 

Fig. 14. The variation of the specific heat jumps at glass-transition temperatures of elacc-epoxy composites, versus the fiber volume content, uf. The values for the factor X and the mesophase, (uj and matrix, (nm) volume fractions, versus uf, as derived from the values of the respective AC, s are also plotted...

However, the precise location of the decomposition and glass transition lines may depend upon pyrolysis conditions because kinetic factors such as gas flow rate, stirring conditions, heating rate, etc., all affect the relative extents to which evaporation and cracking reactions contribute to the change in composition. 

Thermo-electrical properties of PVA composite fibers with a large fraction of carbon nanotubes were studied by Miaudet et al. (52,53). Low temperature conductivity measurements showed that the conductivity depends on several factors the electronic properties of the nanotubes (54), the number and properties of intertube contacts, like in other polymer composites (55). The authors investigated also the behavior at high temperature. A strong increase of conductivity is observed in the vicinity of the glass transition of... 

Creep behavior. Figure 5 shows the composite curve of the shift factors and also indicates that the shift factors in the glass transition region do not follow the WLF equation ... 

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