A study on reaction-induced miscibility of poly(trimethylene terephthalate)/polycarbonate blends

The effect of annealing on the miscibility and phase behavior of Sorona {poly(trimethylene terephthalate), PTT} and bisphenol A polycarbonate (PC) blends was examined. These blends exhibited heterogeneous phase-separated morphology and two well-spaced glass transition temperatures (Tgs) indicating immiscibility. The Sorona/PC blends were thermally annealed at 260 degrees C for different times to induce various extents of transreactions between the two polymers. After annealing at high temperature the original two Tgs of blends were found to merge into one single Tg, exhibiting a homogeneous morphology. It is interesting to note that upon extended annealing the original semicrystalline morphology transformed into an amorphous nature. This is attributed to chemical transreactions between the PTT and PC chain segments as evidenced with FTIR, DSC, DMA, 1H NMR, and WAXS measurements. A new characteristic aryl C-O-C vibration band present at 1070 cm(-1) in the FTIR spectra of the annealed blends indicated the formation of an aromatic polyester structure due to the transreactions between PTT and PC. The sequence structures of the produced copolyesters were determined by a NMR triad analysis, which showed that the randomness increased with time of heating. WAXS analysis confirmed that the PTT/PC blends completely lost their crystallinity when annealed at 260 degrees C for a period of 120 min or longer, indicating the formation of fully random copolyesters. A random copolymer formed as a result of the transreactions between PTT and PC serves as a compatibilizer at the beginning, and upon extended annealing this became the main species of the system which is finally transformed to a homogeneous and amorphous phase.