LIGHT-SCATTERING-STUDIES ON PHASE-SEPARATION IN A BINARY BLEND WITH ADDITION OF DIBLOCK COPOLYMERS

Time-resolved light-scattering measurements have been conducted to investigate the influence of a diblock copolymer additive on the phase boundaries and the kinetics of the phase separation of a polymer blend. The blend studied was a polystyrene-d(8)/polybutadiene (PSD/PB) mixture with a diblock copolymer composed of the same homopolymers. It was observed that the critical temperature of the blend, which has an upper critical solution temperature (UCST), decreased with increasing copolymer content and the kinetics of the phase separation via a spinodal decomposition mechanism slowed down in the presence of the copolymer. The features of the spinodal peak position and intensity as a function of time with and without copolymer additive were analyzed for near and off-critical compositions in various temperature jumps. The intermediate and late-stage growth rates do not follow a universal scaling function with the addition of diblock copolymers. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.