Materials Science Forum, Vol.403, 83-88, 2002
Miscibility and morphology of PVDF/P(VDF-TrFE) blends
This paper reports on a study of the miscibility and the, morphology of the blends formed by poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] copolymer, with 72 mol.% of VDF. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) revealed that the blend components are immiscible in the crystalline phase when the crystallization occurs in two steps from the melting. Micrographs obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the copolymer causes a strong alteration in the lamellar structure of the spherulites, for the 50/50 and 30/70 blends, indicating the presence of the copolymer molecules in the interlamellar regions of these structures. This result indicates that although the immiscibility occurs in the crystalline phase, some miscibility among PVDF and P(VDF-TrFE) should occur in the liquid phase and this intimate mixture on the lamellar level should be sustained during the crystallization.