화학공학소재연구정보센터
Macromolecules, Vol.37, No.7, 2588-2595, 2004
Thermodynamics of poly(dimethylsiloxane)/poly(ethylmethylsiloxane) (PDMS/PEMS) blends in the presence of high-pressure CO2
Processing polymer blends in the presence of high-pressure carbon dioxide (CO2) affords numerous advantages over organic solvents and is becoming a commercially viable and environmentally responsible alternative in the development of new multicomponent materials. A prerequisite to such processing is a fundamental understanding of how high-pressure CO2 influences the phase behavior of polymer blends. In this work, we use high-pressure spectrophotometry to measure the cloud point (T-cp) of poly(dimethylsiloxane)/poly(ethylmethylsiloxane) (PDMS/PEMS) blends as a function of CO2 pressure (P) in the vapor phase. Results obtained here at different blend compositions indicate that values of T-cp for this upper critical solution temperature (UCST) blend (i) generally increase with increasing pressure and GO collapse onto a master curve of DeltaT(cp)(P) for pressures up to about 35 MPa. These data are analyzed by the Sanchez-Lacombe equation of state to ascertain the temperature dependence of an effective interaction parameter (chi) in terms of A + B/T, where A and B are both pressure-sensitive. We also compare our results with previously reported data to delineate the role of hydrostatic pressure on the phase behavior of these blends.