Use of 129 Xe NMR to characterize inhomogeneous solids: a 129 Xe NMR study of the miscibility of EPDM rubber and atactic polypropylene

One of the goals of polymer blending is the creation of miscible blends. The ability to assess accurately the degree of miscibility thus is of great value to the polymer scientist. The traditional methods of determining phase separation include: DSC, DMA, crystallography, microscopy and NMR relaxation measurements in the rotating frame These methods are usually simple and rapid but each technique is not suitable for all samples and each has a lower limit below which they cannot detect small degrees of phase separation. In this presentation we demonstrate a non-destructive and simple technique that can provide miscibility/phase separation information about rubbery and amorphous polymers and polymer blends. (author)