Block Copolymers as Compatibilizers in Coarsening of Polymer Blends: Polystyrene-Poly(methyl methacrylate)-Poly(styrene-block-methyl methacrylate) System

The time-resolved light scattering experiments have been conducted to investigate the kinetics of coarsening of phase-separated immiscible polymer blends with or without added block copolymer. The blends studied were polystyrene-poly(methyl methacrylate) mixtures with a diblock copolymer composed of the corresponding homopolymer blocks. The time evolution of the peak position qm(t,T) and the scattered intensity maximum Im(t,T) at qm have been compared with the theoretically predicted values of exponents for various time scales of phase separation at various annealing temperatures.