Characterization on the phase separation behavior of styrene-butadiene rubber/polyisoprene/organoclay ternary blends under oscillatory shear.

The present work investigated the influence of organoclay (organo-montmorillonite, OMMT) on the phase separation behavior and morphology evolution of solution polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR)/low vinyl content polyisoprene (LPI) blends with rheological methodology. It was found that the incorporation of OMMT not only reduced the droplet size of the dispersion phase, slowed down the phase separation kinetics, also enlarged the processing miscibility window of the blends. The determination on the wetting parameters indicated that due to the oscillatory shear effect, the OMMT sheets might localize at the interface between the two phases and act as compatibilizer or rigid barrier to prevent domain coarsening, resulting in slow phase separation kinetics, small droplet size, and stable morphology. The analysis of rheological data by the Palierne model provided further confirmation that the addition of OMMT can decrease the interfacial tension and restrict the relaxation of melt droplets. Therefore, a vivid "sea-fish-net" model was proposed to describe the effect of OMMT on the phase separation behavior of SSBR/LPI blends, in which the OMMT sheets acted as the barrier (net) to slow down the domain coarsening/coalescence in phase separation process of SSBR/LPI blends.