Determination of the Coupling Parameter of Local Segmental Motion in Poly(isobutylene) by Photon Correlation Spectroscopy

Opposite Effects of SiO2 Nanoparticles on the Local α and Larger-Scale α' Segmental Relaxation Dynamics of PMMA Nanocomposites

The segmental relaxation dynamics of poly(methyl methacrylate)/silica (PMMA/SiO₂) nanocomposites with different compositions (ϕSiO2) near and above the glass transition temperature were investigated by mechanical spectroscopy. At ϕSiO2 ≤ 0.5%, the α peak temperature hardly changes with ϕSiO2, but that of α’ relaxation composed of Rouse and sub-Rouse modes decreases by 15 °C due to the increase of free volume. At ϕSiO2 ≥ 0.7%, both α and α’ relaxations shift to high temperatures because of the steric hindrance introduced by nanoparticle agglomeration. On the other hand, with increasing ϕSiO2, the peak height for α relaxation increases at ϕSiO2 ≤ 0.5% and then decreases at ϕSiO2 ≥ 0.7%, but that for α’ relaxation shows an opposite behavior. This is because at low ϕSiO2, the short-chain segments related to α relaxation can easily bypass the particles, but the longer-chain segments related to α’ relaxation cannot. At high ϕSiO2, the polymer chains were bound to the nanoparticles due to the physical adsorption effect, leading to the decrease of relaxation unit concentration involved in α relaxation. However, the dissociation of those bonds with heating and the concentration heterogeneity of polymer chains result in the increase of peak height for α’ relaxation.

Enhance Slower Relaxation Process of Poly(ethyl acrylate) through Internal Plasticization

In this paper, we report a chemical way to resolve longer motions units in the glass-rubber transition region of poly (ethyl acrylate) (PEA), so called internal plasticization. The ethyl acrylate (EA) monomers were copolymerized with little amount of isoprene (IP) monomers. We propose that the single bonds adjunct to double bonds would have better flexible activity than usual single bonds, so the motion units located between two adjunct double bonds would be enhanced. The dynamic mechanical spectra of internally plasticized PEA (IPPEA) and PEA show that the tan δ of IPPEA is asymmetric, while the tan δ of PEA is symmetric. Furthermore, the results of 2D-DMAS show that the LSM, SRM and RM of IPPEA are located at 7 °C, 12 °C and 36 °C. The shoulder peak of tan δ of IPPEA at higher temperature side was confirmed that it contains sub-rouse mode (SRM) and rouse mode (RM). Thus, internal plasticization is an effective way to resolve modes above Tg.