Polymer alloys with colloidal-size phases prepared in electric fields

COLL 438

Sonja Krause, Jing Li, and Nikolaos Bentenitis. Department of Chemistry, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 Eighth Street, Troy, NY 12180-3590
Polymer alloys with colloidal sized inclusions were prepared in two ways: (1) After two immiscible polymers were dissolved in a mutual solvent, the solvent was evaporated in an electric field, and (2) a polymer or nanoparticles were dissolved in a monomer and the monomer was polymerized in an electric field. Method 2 generally formed smaller dispersed phases than method 1. Also, in method 2, the dispersed phase was not always the same polymer as obtained when the alloy was prepared in the absence of an electric field. Both AC and DC fields were used. The dispersed phases were elongated either parallel or perpendicular to the field direction, depending on the conductivities and dielectric constants of the dispersed and the matrix phases. An existing theoretical treatment for the dispersed phase distortions in small electric fields was extended to high electric fields. A few of its predictions will be compared with experiment.
 

Colloidal and Molecular Electro-Optics

Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry
The 225th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 23-27, 2003