Temperature and concentration dependent viscosity and gelation temperature of ABA triblock copolymer solutions

K. Visscher, P.F. Mijnlieff

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

In solutions of ABA-triblock copolymers in a poor solvent for A thermoreversible gelation can occur. A three-dimensional dynamic network may form and, given the polymer and the solvent, its structure will depend on temperature and polymer mass fraction. The zero-shear rate viscosity of solutions of the triblock-copolymer polystyrene-polyisoprene-polystyrene in n-tetradecane was measured as a function of temperature and polymer mass fraction, and analyzed; the polystyrene blocks contained about 100 monomers, the polyisoprene blocks about 2000 monomers. Empirically, in the viscosity at constant mass fraction plotted versus inverse temperature, two contributions could be discerned; one contribution dominating at high and the other one dominating at low temperatures. In a comparison with theory, the contribution dominating at low temperatures was identified with the Lodge transient network viscosity; some questions remain to be answered, however. An earlier proposal for defining the gelation temperature Tgel is specified for the systems considered, and leads to a gelation curve; Tgel as a function of polymer mass fraction.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)559-574
Number of pages16
JournalRheologica acta
Volume30
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1991

Keywords

  • Zero shear-rate viscosity
  • Triblock-copolymer solution
  • Gelation temperature
  • Thermo-reversible gelation
  • Dynamic network

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