Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2011
Incompatible polymer blends are known to have inadequate mechanical properties due to poor adhesion and high interfacial tension between the phases. One such blend that displays this type of behavior is the cellulose acetate-polystyrene blend and is typical of lignocellulosic-synthetic polymer blend systems. Tailor-made cellulose acetate-polystyrene graft copolymers have been synthesized and used as compatibilizers (emulsifiers) to reduce the interfacial tension and improve interfacial mixing. Thermal analyses and morphological studies of the blends with and without the graft copolymer demonstrated that this was indeed the case.