Physical property characteristics of polysulfone/poly‐(dimethylsiloxane) block copolymers

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Abstract
A series of polysulfone/poly(dimethylsiloxane) (AB)n block copolymers have been synthesized over a wide composition range by varying the molecular weights of the polysulfone and poly(dimethylsiloxane) blocks. The properties vary from a rigid material at high polysulfone content (>65% polysulfone) to an elastomeric material at high poly(dimethylsiloxane) content (>65% poly(dimethylsiloxane)).A simple extension of MAXWELL's analysis of heterogeneous systems is shown to be applicable to the prediction of permeability data and a similar treatment of KERNER's analysis can be used for predicting modulus data. Analysis of both the permeability data and modulus data predict a similar phase inversion composition for this two‐phase block copolymer.Different properties can be obtained with a given block copolymer composition by casting films from different solvents or by swelling the films in a non‐solvent which preferentially swells one phase only. The tendency of poly(dimethylsiloxane) to crystallize at low temperature is dependent upon the flexibility of the block copolymer, which can be influenced by the method of film preparation.

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