Effect of Epoxidation of Diene Component of SBS Block Copolymer on Morphology and Mechanical Properties

In this work, the polybutadiene (PB) block of an asymmetric lamellae forming polystyrene/polybutadiene based triblock copolymer was epoxidized to different extent in order to study its effect on morphology and mechanical behaviour of the copolymer. The products were analyzed by means of different microscopic techniques, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and microhardness measurements. It was found that the microphase separation behavior and hence the mechanical properties of the materials were drastically altered through epoxidation of the diene block of the styrene/diene triblock copolymer. With the increase in the extent of epoxidation the lamellar structure changed to distorted lamellae and then to disordered domains. Consequently, inhomogeneous mechanical performance of the samples was observed at higher degree of chemical modification.