In my lab crystals of pmma and polystyrene are available. I want to make a blend of these polymers and study charecterisation of the blend using FTIR, spectrophotometer, and contact angle measurement. For this I want to drop cast the blend on a glass slide.
Please tell can I use mortar and pestle directly to convert the crystals of pmma and ps in to powder form, and how I can make the blend of these two ploymers?
Hello, if you will proceed by solvent casting method, better blend your polymers in solution. Can you please give more background of your interest.
KR, Nabyl
Dear Dr. Khenoussi,
Thank you for your suggestion.
I will try blending the polymers in a solvent (toulene- as suggested by
Mr. B D S Deeraj).
What procedure we can follow if we want the sample (blend of pmma and polystyrene) in powder form to study the different properties of the blend.
Dear Muskan,
Firstly, for more accuracy, I will say that PS and PMMA granules are crystal like and this is mostly an indication about their optical properties (clarity, transparency). In fact, traditionally or with few exceptions, both polymers are amorphous and will not show a melting point. The exception is made for example by the sindiotactic PS which has a melting point at 240°C (this is a special grade), whereas are few papers that are concerning also the crystallization of PMMA, but I will refrain here my comments.
Regarding the possibility to perform blends between PS and PMMA all suggestions given by other RG colleagues are OK (solvent casting using common solvents, melt-blending, cryogenic grinding of blends, and so on). However, it’s relatively easily to obtain some powders using small laboratory grinding machines due to the high glass temperature of PMMA and PS (for simplicity I will say about 100°C).
Finally, if you have not this equipment, a common grinding coffee machine is OK to produce the first amounts of powders and to begin the experiments!
Good luck in your R&D study and best regards,
Marius
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