Effects of the cation valence on the mechanical properties of sulfonated polystyrene ionomers containing dicarboxylate salts

The dynamic mechanical properties of Ba(II)-neutralized poly(styrene-co-styrene sulfonate) ionomers-containing Ba salt of aliphatic diacid were investigated and compared with those of Na(I)-neutralized ionomers-containing Na diacid salt. It was found that the addition of diacid salts led to a negligible change in the matrix and cluster Tgs of the Ba and Na ionomers regardless of the chain length of the aliphatic diacid salts. The log E′ of Ba ionomers, however, increased linearly with increasing chain length of Ba diacid salt, which was different from that of Na ionomers. On increasing wt% of the salts in the ionomers, the matrix Tgs of Ba and Na ionomers did not change, but the cluster Tgs increased slightly for Ba and Na ionomers, except for the Na ionomer-containing C16 diacid salt. In addition, the log E′ increased linearly with the wt% of diacid salts, but the increasing rate was higher for the Ba ionomers, compared to Na ionomers. Thus, it was suggested that the Ba diacid salts would face more difficulty in the formation of multiplet with the ionic groups of the ionomers, compared to Na ionomer system; thus, more Ba diacid salts were phase-separated, which showed a stronger filler effect. In addition, since the Ba ionomers did not flow easily above the cluster Tg of the ionomers, it was proposed that the multiplets of Ba ionomers acted still as effective physical cross-links above cluster Tg, to some extent. Finally, it was concluded that the difference in anionic groups, the increasing amount of Ba salts, and the divalent cation enhanced the filler effects strongly.