Investigation of polymer miscibility by spectroscopic methods V. Effect of molecular weight and block copolymerization of syndiotactic poly(methyl methacrylate) on its miscibility with poly(vinyl chloride)

Investigated by nonradiative energy transfer (NRET), the state of mixing of PVC and s.PMMA which is on the dimensional scale of a few nanometers is significantly affected by the chain length. When PVC is blended with s.PMMA of increasing molecular weight (MW), the longest chains of s.PMMA are likely to segregate from a homogeneous blend formed by PVC and low‐MW s.PMMA. The phase separation should therefore be of purely entropic origin and strongly dependent on both the relative percentage and the chain length of each component. These results are in qualitative agreement with conclusions previously drawn from DSC and transmission electron microscopy. NRET is a more powerful tool in probing heterogeneities compared to DSC and the thermally stimulated depolarization current method; it provides evidence against the previously suggested model of a 1:1 PVC/s.PMMA aggregate. Copyright © 1986 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.