Revista de ciencias e ingeniería de materiales

Determination of Degree of Compatibility of Novolak-Polybutadiene Blends

Abstract

Hussein SA Golicha, Samuel Katia

Although Polymers have many applications, their shortcoming is that their properties depend on the structure, molecular mass, polymer-polymer and polymer-solvent interactions among others. Hence for a particular use, it is necessary to synthesize a polymer with a particular specification. This is time consuming besides being costly. An alternative to synthesizing the required polymer is to mix or blend two or more polymers. Blending requires knowledge about the miscibility of the two polymers. In this study the compatibility of Novolak-polybutadiene blend as a function of up to 30% rubber concentration, was determined from its theoretical solubility parameters and heat of mixing. The result shows that the degree of compatibility of the two polymers is very low, and the two polymers are thus immiscible above five percent of rubber content.