Block Copolymers as Compatibilizers in Coarsening of Polymer Blends: Polystyrene-Poly(methyl methacrylate)-Poly(styrene-block-methyl methacrylate) System

The time-resolved light scattering experiments have been conducted to investigate the kinetics of coarsening of phase-separated immiscible polymer blends with or without added block copolymer. The blends studied were polystyrene-poly(methyl methacrylate) mixtures with a diblock copolymer composed of the corresponding homopolymer blocks. The time evolution of the peak position q m ( t , T ) and the scattered intensity maximum I m ( t , T ) at q m have been compared with the theoretically predicted values of exponents for various time scales of phase separation at various annealing temperatures.