Blends of Styrene-Diene block copolymers and tackifiers have been used as pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA). Although tackifiers are well-established ingredients of PSAs, very little work has been published concerning the effect of tackifiers on phase separation in block copolymers (BCPs). We report small-angle X-ray scattering and rheological analysis of styrene-diene BCP based PSAs with different tackifier contents in order to study the ordering of polystyrene domains during melt quenching. We observe that increasing tackifier content leads to decrease in the storage modulus and decrease in the order-disorder transition temperature. Addition of tackifier also affects the formation of a BCC structure of polystyrene domains. The tackifier used is selective towards the �soft� diene block; however the tackifier also appears to interact with styrene units in the BCP. More experiments are underway that will lead to a better understanding of the effect of tackifiers on phase separation and the performance of PSAs.

Phase separation studies of pressure sensitive adhesives containing styrene- and diene-based block copolymer

245th National Meeting (2013)

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