Blend morphological analysis

For the rubber technologist, the routine assessment of polymer blend morphology should be considered essential in developing new materials. For many years rubbers have been blended together so that their individual properties can be combined to produce a material which has a particular combination of properties not available in the individual materials. It is only by the use of some form of microscopical tool that one can literally observe the changes made to the phase morphology of a blend by variations in cure times, curatives, fillers etc. This type of information is now being used to fine tune blends in order to produce exactly the type of final material that is required.