Miscibilidad en Mezclas de Poli(Estireno-co-Anhídrido Maleico) y Poli(e-Caprolactona) (SMA/PCL)

Due to the versatility of the Polycaprolactone (PCL) for the preparation of polymer blends, we blended it with an amorphous component, Poly(Styrene-co-Maleic Anhydride) (SMA) containing 14% wt of maleic anhydride. We found that the polymer blend system SMA14/PCL is miscible in the amorphous region in the whole composition range. It was demonstrated through Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance that such miscibility results from physical interactions and not from chemical reactions between the components. The thermal behaviour of this system depends on composition, with a variety of results from blends that crystallize on cooling, blends that do not crystallize to blends that cold-crystallize. The miscibility leads to a depression of the melting and crystallization temperatures of the PCL fraction as the SMA14 content increases. The existence of a single Tg located at temperatures in between those of the neat polymers evidences the miscibility on a macroscopic scale. These temperatures can be well predicted by using the Fox equation, especially for high SMA14 contents. The morphological results showed the formation of banded spherulites without interspherulitic segregation of the amorphous component as a result of the molecular mixing of the components.