Applying Polymer Blend Dynamics Concepts to a Simplified Industrial System. A Combined Effort by Dielectric Spectroscopy and Neutron Scattering

Microscopic versus Macroscopic Glass Transitions and Relevant Length Scales in Mixtures of Industrial Interest

We have combined X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction with polarization analysis, small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), neutron elastic fixed window scans (EFWS), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to investigate polymeric blends of industrial interest composed by isotopically labeled styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and polystyrene (PS) oligomers of size smaller than the Kuhn length. The EFWS are sensitive to the onset of liquid-like motions across the calorimetric glass transition, allowing the selective determination of the "microscopic" effective glass transitions of the components. These are compared with the "macroscopic" counterparts disentangled by the analysis of the DSC results in terms of a model based on the effects of thermally driven concentration fluctuations and self-concentration. At the microscopic level, the mixtures are dynamically heterogeneous for blends with intermediate concentrations or rich in PS, while the sample with highest content of the fast SBR component looks as dynamically homogeneous. Moreover, the combination of SANS and DSC has allowed determining the relevant length scale for the α-relaxation through its loss of equilibrium to be ≈30 Å. This is compared with the different characteristic length scales that can be identified in these complex mixtures from structural, thermodynamical, and dynamical points of view because of the combined approach followed. We also discuss the sources of the non-Gaussian effects observed for the atomic displacements and the applicability of a Lindemann-like criterion in these materials.

Disentangling the Calorimetric Glass-Transition Trace in Polymer/Oligomer Mixtures from the Modeling of Dielectric Relaxation and the Input of Small-Angle Neutron Scattering

We have disentangled the contributions to the glass transition as observed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) on simplified systems of industrial interest consisting of blends of styrene–butadiene rubber (SBR) and polystyrene (PS) oligomer. To do this, we have started from a model previously proposed to describe the effects of blending on the equilibrium dynamics of the α-relaxation as monitored by broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS). This model is based on the combination of self-concentration and thermally driven concentration fluctuations (TCFs). Considering the direct insight of small-angle neutron scattering on TCFs, blending effects on the α-relaxation can be fully accounted for by using only three free parameters: the self-concentration of the components φ_self^SBR and φ_self^PS) and the relevant length scale of segmental relaxation, 2R_c. Their values were determined from the analysis of the BDS results on these samples, being that obtained for 2R_c ≈ 25Å in the range usually reported for this magnitude in glass-forming systems. Using a similar approach, the distinct contributions to the DSC experiments were evaluated by imposing the dynamical information deduced from BDS and connecting the component segmental dynamics in the blend above the glass-transition temperature T_g (at equilibrium) and the way the equilibrium is lost when cooling toward the glassy state. This connection was made through the α-relaxation characteristic time of each component at T_g, τ_g. The agreement of such constructed curves with the experimental DSC results is excellent just assuming that τ_g is not affected by blending.

Disentangling Self-Atomic Motions in Polyisobutylene by Molecular Dynamics Simulations

We present fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations on polyisobutylene (PIB) in a wide temperature range above the glass transition. The cell is validated by direct comparison of magnitudes computed from the simulation and measured by neutron scattering on protonated samples reported in previous works. Once the reliability of the simulation is assured, we exploit the information in the atomic trajectories to characterize the dynamics of the different kinds of atoms in PIB. All of them, including main-chain carbons, show a crossover from Gaussian to non-Gaussian behavior in the intermediate scattering function that can be described in terms of the anomalous jump diffusion model. The full characterization of the methyl-group hydrogen motions requires accounting for rotational motions. We show that the usually assumed statistically independence of rotational and segmental motions fails in this case. We apply the rotational rate distribution model to correlation functions calculated for the relative positions of methyl-group hydrogens with respect to the carbon atom at which they are linked. The contributions to the vibrational density of states are also discussed. We conclude that methyl-group rotations are coupled with the main-chain dynamics. Finally, we revise in the light of the simulations the hypothesis and conclusions made in previously reported neutron scattering investigations on protonated samples trying to address the origin of the dielectric β-process.

Short-Time Dynamics of PDMS-g-PDMS Bottlebrush Polymer Melts Investigated by Quasi-Elastic Neutron Scattering

We have studied the short-time dynamical behavior of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) bottlebrush polymers, PDMS-g-PDMS. The samples have similar backbone lengths but different side-chain lengths, resulting in a shape transition. Quasi-elastic neutron scattering was used to observe the dynamical changes inherent to these structural changes. The combination of data from three spectrometers enabled to follow the dynamics over broad frequency and temperature ranges, which included segmental relaxations and more localized motions. The latter, identified as the methyl group rotation, is described by a threefold jump model and shows higher activation energies compared to linear PDMS. The segmental relaxation times, τs, decrease with increasing molecular weight of the side chains but increase with momentum transfer, Q, following a power law, which suggests a non-Gaussian behavior for bottlebrush polymers.

Spatially and Temporally Resolved Heterogeneities in a Miscible Polymer Blend

Mapping the spatial and temporal heterogeneities in miscible polymer blends is critical for understanding and further improving their material properties. However, a complete picture on the heterogeneous dynamics is often obscured in ensemble measurements. Herein, the spatial and temporal heterogeneities in fully miscible polystyrene/oligostyrene blend films are investigated by monitoring the rotational diffusion of embedded individual probe molecules using defocused wide-field fluorescence microscopy. In the same blend film, three significantly different types of dynamical behaviors (referred to as modes) of the probe molecules can be observed at the same time, namely, immobile, continuously rotating, and intermittently rotating probe molecules. This reveals a prominent spatial heterogeneity in local dynamics at the nanometer scale. In addition to that, temporal heterogeneity is uncovered by the nonexponential characteristic of the rotational autocorrelation functions of single-molecule probes. Moreover, the occurrence probabilities of these different modes strongly depend on the polystyrene: oligostyrene ratios in the blend films. Remarkably, some probe molecules switch between the continuous and intermittent rotational modes at elevated temperature, indicating a possible alteration in local dynamics that is triggered by the dynamic heterogeneity in the blends. Although some of these findings can be discussed by the self-concentration model and the results provided by ensemble averaging techniques (e.g., dielectric spectroscopy), there are implications that go beyond current models of blend dynamics.