Compatibilizing effect of transesterification product between components in bisphenol-A polycarbonate/poly(ethylene terephthalate) blend

The compatibilizing effect of a random copolymer, which is the transesterification product, on its corresponding blend system of bisphenol-A polycarbonate/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PC/PET) has been studied using a Differential Scanning Calorimeter and a Phase Contrast Microscope. It was found that after a long time of transesterification between PET and PC (50/50, wt %), the obtained product, that is, TCET random copolymer, is miscible with individual homopolymers of PC and PET. The addition of the TCET copolymer into the immiscible PC/PET blend can make the glass transitions of the PC-rich phase and PET-rich phase approach each other, and eventually merge into a single glass transition when the content of TCET in the ternary mixture reaches 60 wt %. Meanwhile, the phase structure images showed that with the increasing content of the TCET copolymer in the ternary blends, the size of the phase domains decreases and the phase domains further diminish at 60 wt % TCET. All these results proved the compatibilizing effect of TCET copolymer on the PC/PET blends in their ternary mixture. The mechanism of the compatibilizing effect is directly related to the reduction of the interfacial tension between PC-rich and PET-rich phase domains in the presence of increasing amounts of TCET copolymer in the ternary blends. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 37: 2960–2972, 1999