Thermodynamics of polymer mixtures: study on the mixing process of the poly(styrene)/poly(vinylmethylether) system

The miscibility of poly(styrene) and poly(vinylmethylether) is studied both by measuring the glass transition temperatures of the mixture and with the application of the Flory–Prigogine theory in the approximated form due to Patterson. For these calculations, the enthalpy of mixing of the two polymers is evaluated by measuring the enthalpies of solution of the pure polymers and of the mixture. The trend of the interaction parameters with the temperature for two samples of poly(styrene) of different molecular weight is discussed.