| Abstract: | Opposite charges, namely tertiary amine and carboxyl groups, were introduced into polyurethane (PU) and polystyrene (PS), respectively, to prepare PU/PS interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) by means of simultaneous bulk polymerization. Four IPNs were synthesized: a full-IPN, two semi-IPNs and a linear blend. The effect of charge groups on the mechanical properties and morphology of the four polymer alloys was investigated. It is found that the PU/PS IPN which was incorporated with charge groups is free of any phase-separation, and sufficiently uniformly distributed, as can be seen from the corresponding scanning electron microscopy (SEM) photographs. Dynamic mechanical analysis indicates that the transition peak of the loss modulus E″ will move towards the centre between the two transition peaks of both components in the absence of charge groups, as a function of an increase in the contents of the opposite charge groups. Meanwhile the storage modulus E′ will decrease in a single-stage way from the previous two-stage mode. The tensile strength in all the four polymer alloys increased markedly along with an increase in the contents of acrylic acid (AA) in the poly(styrene-acrylic acid) (PSAA), which clearly can be seen for the PU/PSAA full-IPN. |
