MECHANICAL MODEL FOR TWO-PHASE POLYMER BLEND SYSTEMS WITH THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PHASE INVERSION

For two-phase polymer blend systems, the phase inversion will take place as the blendcomposition is changed. In this paper a mechanical model has been proposed to describe themodulus-composition relation in the phase inversion region. The application of the mechanicalmodel to two polyurethane blend systems has been studied. It was found that the theoreticalprediction for the modulus-composition relation is quite consistent with the experimentalresults. Furthermore, the characteristics of the phase inversion can be determined uniquelyby the parameters involved in the mechanical model.