Nanodroplet formation and exclusive homogenously nucleated crystallization in confined electrospun immiscible polymer blend fibers of polystyrene and poly(ethylene oxide)

作者：Zhong, Ganji; Wang, Ke; Zhang, Lifeng; Li, Zhong-Ming; Fong, Hao^*; Zhu, Lei

来源：Polymer, 2011, 52(24): 5397-5402.

DOI：10.1016/j.polymer.2011.09.045

• Electrospun fibers
• Immiscible polymer blend
• Homogeneous nucleation

By utilizing electrospun blend fibers of polystyrene (PS) and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) with diameters in sub-microns, nanodroplets of the minor component (PEO) were obtained by annealing the blend fibers above the glass transition temperature (T-g) of the matrix polymer (PS), as a result of the Rayleigh-Plateau instability in the melt. However, direct thermal annealing of the PS/PEO blend fibers led to poor Rayleigh breakup of the PEO fibers in the PS matrix, and fractionated crystallization with both homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation was observed, probably due to a broad size distribution of PEO particles. On the contrary, after confining the PS/PEO blend fibers with a high T-g polymer, poly(4-tert-butyl styrene) (P4tBS, T-g similar to 143 degrees C), well-defined Rayleigh breakup of the PEO fiber was achieved by annealing the P4tBS-coated PS/PEO blend fibers at 150 degrees C. Consequently, exclusive homogeneously nucleated PEO crystallization was observed at -20 degrees C. This report could provide a universal method to achieve nanosized droplets for the study of nanoconfinement effect by utilizing electrospun immiscible polymer blend fibers without addition of any compabitilizers.

• 出版日期2011-11-10
• 单位四川大学