Domain structure and viscoelastic properties of graft copolymer

The domain structures of film specimens cast from benzene solutions of a series of graft copolymer of poly(methyl acrylate) with styrene with different degrees of grafting, from 10 to 80 vol% of styrene component, were investigated with phase-contrast and dye-staining microscopy. The graft copolymers were synthesized by coupling polystyryllithium, obtained by anionic polymerization technique, onto a well-fractionated PMA, so that the coupling density of the grafted segment along the backbone segment was varied but the molecular weights of the grafted and backbone segments were kept constant to cover the above range of volume fraction of styrene component for the series of graft copolymer.