Polymer blends and interpenetrating polymer networks at the interface with solids

This review deals with a variety of the processes proceeding in polymer blends at the interface with solids. By the contact of a polymer blend with a solid surface, the thermodynamic state of the blends changes due to physical interaction of the blend component with the surface. In processes of adsorption of polymer mixtures at the interface with solid from solutions and processes of surface segregation from one-phase blends there takes place the formation of near-surface layers with compositions different from the composition of the initial polymer blends. Such a differences change the conditions of phase separation in thin films of a polymer blend. The effects under consideration depend on three thermodynamic interaction parameters: polymer A-solid, polymer B-solid, polymers A-B. Theoretical concepts and experimental data on the adsorption of polymer blends from solution, surface segregation and phase separation at the interface with solid are presented and discussed. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the phase state of the polymer blends in thin layers at the interface and to the mechanisms of the changing conditions of phase separation in the presence of a solid. The peculiarities of the behavior of the formation of interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) in the presence of a solid are considered and the characteristic features of phase separation and surface segregation of IPNs in the course of the chemical reactions are discussed. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.