Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol.69, No.12, 2349-2356, 1998
Effect of deformation on the surface composition of multicomponent polymers. II. Blends of polydimethylsiloxane-polysulfone block copolymers in polychloroprene
The effect of uniaxial stretching on the surface composition of dilute blends of polydimethylsiloxane/polysulfone 2500/44,000 and 2500/3500 block copolymers in polychloroprene is studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The surface of the initial (unstretched) blends is found to be covered by a discontinuous copolymer overlayer with a thickness greater than the XPS sampling depth. The stretching leads to a substantial drop in the extent of the copolymer surface segregation. For the 2500/ 3500 block copolymer, the dependence of the surface composition of the blends on the stretching degree is well described by a homogeneous deformation model, whereas for blends of the 2500/44,000 copolymer, the stretching of the copolymer overlayer lags noticeably behind that of the polychloroprene matrix. In the blends of the 2500/3500 copolymer, the stretching has practically no effect on the distribution of the copolymer components in the near-surface region. By contrast, the 2500/44,000 copolymer shows a substantial surface depletion of siloxane with stretching.