Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol.74, No.10, 2423-2431, 1999
Influence of temperature, molecular weight, and polydispersity of polystyrene on interfacial tension between low-density polyethylene and polystyrene
In this work, the influence of temperature, molecular weight, and polydispersity of polystyrene on interfacial tension between low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polystyrene (PS) was evaluated using the pendant drop method. It was shown that interfacial tension between LDPE and PS decreases with increasing temperature for all LDPE-PS pairs studied. The temperature coefficient (partial derivative gamma/partial derivative T) (where lambda is interfacial tension and T is temperature) was higher for lower molecular weight and larger polydispersity of PS. The interfacial tension between LDPE and PS at a temperature of 202 degrees C increased when the molecular weight of polystyrene was varied from 13,000 to 30,000. When the molecular weight of PS was further increased, the interfacial tension was shown to level off. The effect of polydispersity on interfacial tension between PS and LDPE, at a temperature of 202 degrees C, was studied using PS with a constant-number average molecular weight and varying polydispersity. The interfacial tension was shown to decrease with increasing polydispersity. However, the influence of polydispersity was lower for PS of higher molecular weight.