Viscosity of Miscible Polymer Blends

MRSEC Participant: Stephanie Oehlke

MRSEC Faculty Advisor: Tim Lodge

A central issue in polymer blend dynamics is determining how to predict the fiscosity of blends given the viscosity of the individual polymers. Contrary to intuition, the blend viscosity is not simply the weighted average of the two components' viscosities. This research seeks to confirm or alter a recent model that makes blend viscosity predictions possible. For this research, a model miscible blend system of polystyrene (PS) and polyA(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) will be used, because viscosity predictions show unusual behavior. Several PS/PVME blend systems should provide a wide range of viscosity values, measured over a range of temperatures and compositions.