The reinforcement of polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) interfaces using alternating copolymers

Asymmetric double cantilever beam studies are presented that document the ability of alternating copolymers to strengthen a polymer/polymer interface. For polystyrene/poly(methyl methacrylate) interfaces, these results show that the alternating copolymer is the least effective sequence distribution of a linear copolymer at strengthening the polystyrene/poly(methyl methacrylate) interface, where the copolymers that are compared all have similar molecular weight and composition. The results also demonstrate that the effect of copolymer molecular weight on the ability of the copolymer to strengthen an interface is controlled by the balance between the increased entanglements and decreased miscibility of the copolymer with the homopolymers with increasing molecular weight.