Polymer Bulletin, Vol.72, No.4, 743-753, 2015
Evaluation of enthalpy of mixing by calorimetric method: effect of hydrogen bonding in poly(4-hydroxy styrene)-based blends
To verify the effect of hydrogen bonding on the polymer mixing, blends of poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) with poly(4-hydroxy styrene) (PHS), respectively, have been prepared. The effect of hydrogen bond strength on the enthalpy of mixing, Delta H (M), was investigated by microcalorimetric measurements and FTIR spectroscopy. Infrared analysis allowed to measure the amount of hydrogen bonding by a curve fitting procedure in PHS/PMMA blends, looking to the change in the characteristic bands of carbonyl group of PMMA. In the case of PHS/PMVE, the hydroxyl-stretching region has been investigated to have only a qualitative estimation of hydrogen bonding. For both PHS/PMVE and PHS/PMMA systems, the measured exothermic (negative) Delta H (M) decreases with the increase in the PHS content, indicating that the presence of strong specific intermolecular interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, favours the polymer blending.