Comparison between five experimental methods to evaluate interfacial tension between molten polymers

In this work, an experimental comparison between five different techniques to measure interfacial tension between molten polymers is presented. The five techniques include two equilibrium methods: the pendant drop (PD) and the sessile drop (SD); two dynamic methods: the breaking thread (BT) and imbedded fiber retraction (IF); and a rheological method based on linear viscoelastic measurements of the blend (RM). The polymer pairs studied were polystyrene/polypropylene (PS/PP); and PP/high density polyethylene (PP/HDPE). It was possible to determine the interfacial tension between PP/PS with all the methods tested and the results corroborated within 20%. However, the interfacial tension between PP and HDPE could be evaluated only using rheological methods because of a too-small difference of index of refraction between both polymers. The experimental precision increased in the following order: RM < SD < BT < IF < PD. The rheological method had the advantage of being simpler and faster than dynamic and equilibrium methods. However, when using the rheological method, care should be taken because the results obtained may depend upon the concentration of the blend used for the measurements. It was observed that the pendant drop and breaking thread methods cannot be used for polymers with high viscosity (above 5 x 10(5) Pa.s).