Polymer blends made from ionomer and ionomer precursor polymer

Rigid-rigid blends made of an ionomer and an ionomer precursor polymer, based on either polystyrene (PS) or poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA), were studied. A positive deviation from the rule of mixtures in both strength and toughness was observed over the entire composition range; and an especially significant enhancement was observed at low ionomer composition (e.g., 10 wt.%). This is attributed to a fine dispersion of the rigid ionomer phase in the matrix polymer together with good interfacial adhesion between the phases. The adhesion arises from entanglements due to athermal interactions between the same monomeric units of both the ionomer and the ionomer precursor: In addition, all the blend samples are found to be transparent due to similar refractive indices of the two components.