Web Release Date: March 21,
Morphology and Phase Transitions in Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene Triblock Copolymer Grafted with Isobutyl-Substituted Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes
and
Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, and ERC, Inc., AFRL/PRSM, Edwards AFB, California 93524
Received October 17, 2006
Revised Manuscript Received February 14, 2007
Abstract:
Two symmetric triblock polystyrene-butadiene-polystyrene (SBS) copolymers with different initial morphologies were grafted with varying amounts of isobutyl-substituted polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) molecules. The POSS octamers, R'R7Si8O12, were designed to contain a single silane functional group, R', which was used to graft onto the dangling 1,2-butadienes in the polybutadiene block and seven identical organic groups, R = isobutyl (iBu). Morphology and phase transitions of these iBu-POSS-modified SBS were investigated using small-angle X-ray scattering and rheological methods. It was observed that when iBu-POSS was grafted to the butadiene segment, the long-range and local order of the morphology were preserved, and the d-spacing showed a small, systematic increase with increasing POSS content. These observations suggest that grafted iBu-POSS were well-distributed within the butadiene domains and did not interact with the styrene domains; effectively, grafting of iBu-POSS to butadiene did not affect the segregation between butadiene and styrene domains. However, addition of iBu-POSS reduces the overall polystyrene volume. Consequently, from a morphology standpoint, this modification effectively shifts the phase diagram to lower styrene content. This was supported with SAXS and transition temperatures measurements made from the different host morphologies.
Download the full text: PDF | HTML
