Poly(ethyl methacrylate-co-hydroxyethyl acrylate) random co-polymers: Dielectric and dynamic-mechanical characterization

The conformational mobility in poly(ethyl methacrylate-co-hydrxyethyl acrylate) co-polymers was studied by dielectric relaxation spectroscopy, thermally stimulated depolarization currents and dynamic-mechanical experiments. The relaxation strength and the shape of the dielectric relaxation spectra of the homopolymer and co-polymer networks were analyzed using the Havriliak–Negami equation. The dependence of the relaxation strength on co-polymer composition and temperature was analyzed taking into account the merging of the main and the secondary relaxation processes. The shape of the ε″ versus frequency plots led to the conclusion that the distribution of relaxation times was broader in the co-polymers with intermediate composition than in the homopolymers, a feature that can be explained by the inhomogeneity produced at molecular scale by the sequence distribution of the monomeric units along the chain. Master curves were built both for the elastic modulus and the mechanical loss tangent, and the temperature dependence of the relaxation times was deduced from the shift factors. The fit to the Vogel equation permitted the calculation of the strength parameter, which is higher in the co-polymers that the simple average of the values of the homopolymers, a feature that can be related to the broadness of the distribution of relaxation times.