Characterization of the microvoids of a tetramethyl polycarbonate/polystyrene blend system using Xe sorption measurements and super(129)Xe NMR spectroscopy

Relationships among the super(129)Xe NMR chemical shift, Xe sorption properties and density in the miscible tetramethyl bisphenol A polycarbonate (TMPC)/polystyrene (PS) polymer blend system were investigated to estimate the variation of microvoids resulting from blending. The Xe sorption properties of the TMPC/PS blend system indicated that blending reduced the amount of microvoids. The super(129)Xe NMR chemical shift of the super(129)Xe in the blend showed a nonlinear low-field shift with an increasing amount of total Xe sorbed for all the sample films. The estimation of microvoids in this polymer blend system using super(129)Xe NMR spectroscopy has been coincident with the variation in the density and Xe sorption properties.