Morphology stabilization of co-continuous polymer blends through clay nanoparticles

The influence of plate-like nanoparticles on the morphology evolution of co-continuous polymer blends during quiescent annealing is investigated thorugh viscoelastic analysis. Contextually, the effect of the molten polymer phases on the assembly dynamics and ultimate structure of the filler is also studied. A model co-continuous blend of polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) (45/55 wt/wt) has been selected, and different amount of clay nanoparticles preferentially adsorbing at the polymer-polymer interface are added to this system. The filler inhibits the typical phase coarsening of the co-continuous morphology during thermal treatments even at extremely low filler volume fractions (Φ=0.4 vol.%). In addition, the time evolution of the rheological response of the filled blends resembles that of homopolymer-based nanocomposites, suggesting that the fluid phases do not appreciably alter the nanoparticle dynamics. Exploiting a simple two-phase model, the main elastic features of the filler network that builds up at sufficiently high Φ were found to prescind from the multiphasic nature of the matrix. Nonetheless, the presence of a co-continuous polymer microstructure prevented the elastic and structural features of the network to be discerned through the use of fractal models