Kinetics of the physical-chemial processes during stucture development in non-reactive multi-phase polymer system studied by real-time study with modulated temperature differential scanning calorimetry.

Modulated DSC, introduced about five years ago, is a state of the art extension of conventional DSC. The laboratory of Physical Chemistry and Polymer Science explored the possibilities of MTDSC as a quantitative characterization tool for polymerization kinetics, vitrification and devitrification processes in reacting polymer systems. Micro-Thermal Analysis uTA introduced in 1998, is a further extension of MTDSC with a high potential for the characterizatiodn of multi-phase plymeric materials. uTA combines the capabilities of thermal analysis with atomic force microscopy AFM. In this OZR-project the know how about real time structure development with MTDSC will further be extended, in combination with an exploration of uTA. In this case, non-reactive multi-phase polymer systems are investigated. The following topics will be studied 1) real-time study of mechanism and kinetics of demixing and reixing in composite systems with at least one polymeric component. 2) real-time study of the interrelations between crystallisation and phase separation in polymer blends. 3) Modeling of the kinetics of the physical-chemical processes described n topics 1-2 4) comparison with reaction-induced phase separation in reacting polymer systems. 5) Explorative experimental research with uTA on these multi-phase polymer systems. The temperature- and /or crystallisation-induced phase separation, heterogeneity, phase and interphases of the polymer systems described in topics 1-2) will be investigated with uTA