Miscibility Study of Poly(vinyl chloride)/Poly(methyl methacrylate-co-4-vinylpyridine) by Viscosimetry, DSC, and FTIR

The miscibility of the poly(vinyl chloride)/poly(methylmethacrylate) system were improved by introducing pyridine units into poly(methylmethacrylate) main. For this purpose, we have synthesized through a radical polymerization a series of methylmethacrylate-co-vinyl-4-pyridine copolymers of different compositions and carried out a comparative study by viscosimetry, differential scanning calorimetry, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FTIR) methods. The viscosimetric analysis using the Krigbaum-Wall, K. K. Chee, and Compos approaches revealed that, the Poly(vinyl chloride)/poly(methylmethactylate-co-4-vinylpyridine)(PVC/MMA4VP-15) at 15 wt % of 4-vinylpyridine systems in tetrahydrofuran are completely miscible in all proportions. The differential scanning calorimetry analysis confirmed the miscibility of these systems in all proportions by the appearance of only one glass transition temperature between those of the two pure constituents. The Kwei and Schneider approaches showed also the miscibility of this system, which is due to the specific interactions between the acidic hydrogen atom of PVC and the nitrogen of MMA4VP-15. The use of FTIR method has confirmed the occurrence of this kind of interactions by broadening and shifting of the involved functional groups vibration bands. In this work, we have also carried out a preliminary test of sorption of THF aqueous solution by PVC and PVC/MMA4VP-15 blend membranes. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 119: 173-182, 2011