Physico-mechanical and WAXS studies of PU/PS semi interpenetrating polymer networks

The polyethylene glycol (PEG) based polyurethane (PU) and its semi interpenetrating polymer networks (SIPNs) with polystyrene (PS) were prepared. The FTIR, physico-mechanical properties like density, tensile strength, percentage elongation at break and surface hardness of the IPNs were measured. Wide angle X-ray studies (WAXS) were made to know the microcrystalline parameters such as crystal size (〈N〉), lattice disorder (g), surface (Ds) and volume (Dv) weighted crystal size of SIPNs. The different asymmetric column length distribution functions were employed using Exponential, Lognormal and Reinhold methods and the results are compared.