Phase behavior and water vapor transport in BIONOLLE/polymethylmethacrylate blends

The miscibility of blends prepared from amorphous polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and a semi-crystalline biodegradable polybutylene succinate–adipate polyester (BIONOLLE 3000) has been studied. Using methods such as microscopic observation, lowering of Tm and Tg and crystallization kinetics, these polymers have been shown to present a very low mutual solubility in the whole composition range. The permeability to water vapor results are interpreted using the classical series and parallel models for immiscible blends considering that only the amorphous part of the blend is responsible for the water vapor transport. These results are then compared with those obtained for the polyethylene oxide/polymethylmethacrylate blends and discussed in terms of the change of crystallinity of the semi-crystalline component of the blend.