Incorporation of liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) into commodity polymers remains a challenge in the design of high-performance, low-cost polymeric blends. Blends of a thermoplastic polymer and a nematic LCP are produced here by mechanical alloying. Functionality sensitive X-ray microscopy reveals LCP dispersions as small as 100 nm in diameter. Intimate mixing remains upon subsequent melt pro...

The objective of this study was to determine if a high Tg polymer (Eudragit(®) S100) could be used to stabilize amorphous domains of polyethylene oxide (PEO) and hence improve the stability of binary polymer systems containing celecoxib (CX). We propose a novel method of stabilizing the amorphous PEO solid dispersion through inclusion of a miscible, high Tg polymer, namely, that can form strong...

Membrane-based gas separation has attracted a great deal of attention recently due to the requirement for high purity gasses in industrial applications like fuel cells, and because of environment concerns, such as global warming. The current methods of cryogenic distillation and pressure swing adsorption are energy intensive and costly. Therefore, polymer membranes have emerged as a less energy...

Immiscible homopolymers are often blended mechanically to obtain blends with properties significantly superior to those of the component polymers. The creep recovery of such blends was studied in the previous paper, henceforth referred to as I. Surface-active compatibilizers are commonly added to such blends to improve blending of the immiscible phases and to improve the mechanical properties o...

The dynamic dilution theory of stress relaxation, quantitative for star polymer melts, cannot be directly applied to star-linear blends. The linear chains on their reptation time scale τd release constraints on the star arms, resulting in constraint-release Rouse motion for the star arms not described by dynamic dilution. We present a microscopic theory without adjustable parameters for stress ...

Solid Polymer Electrolytes (SPEs) consisting of ternary blends of charged polymer, neutral polymer, and plasticizer or salt have received much interest for their low volatility and high flexibility of polymers with ion-selective conductivity of the charge-carrying backbone. It has been shown that in these polyelectrolyte blends, where the dielectric constant is relatively low, ionic correlation...

Properties of samples containing polyurethane (PU), poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) and nanosize particles of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) are correlated with concentrations of these components. Interphase phenomena in PU/PVAc/CaCO3 nanohybrids have been studied before, we focus here on wear and scratch resistance. In addition to polymer blends containing CaCO3, the effects of adding CaCO3 with grafted...