The roles of the Trommsdorff–Norrish effect in phase separation of binary polymer mixtures induced by photopolymerization

Influence of the Trommsdorff–Norrish (T–N) effect on the phase separation of methyl methacrylate (MMA)/poly(ethyl acrylate) (PEA) mixtures undergoing photo-polymerization was examined by a combination of several experimental techniques. By FT-IR spectroscopy, it was found that the polymerization conversion explosively increases at the onset of this T–N effect. The characteristic irradiation time τ at which this effect occurs, strongly depends on the light intensity and gradually shifts to early time as the irradiation intensity increases. The shrinkage of the mixture observed in situ by laser-scanning confocal microscopy exhibits a transition at a particular irradiation time which is slightly longer than the characteristic time τ. By gel permeation chromatography (GPC), it was found that the molecular weight of the resulting PMMA was almost unchanged before τ and suddenly increases about an order of magnitude after the onset of the auto-acceleration effect. Finally, the characteristic length scales of the morphology also quickly increase with irradiation time and are eventually frozen by this T–N effect. These experimental results indicate that the Trommsdorff–Norrish effect plays an important role in the kinetic processes of polymerization-induced phase separation, suggesting an efficient tool to control the morphology of the polymerizing mixture.