Relaxation Processes of Poly(<i>tert</i>‐butyl acrylate) Chemically Confined via Hydrogen Bonds

Abstract

Abstract In this work, tailored copolymers of tert ‐butyl acrylate and acrylic acid (AA) with an ABA type structure were systematically analyzed via dynamic‐mechanical analysis with regard to their relaxations, in which the main focus was put on a chemical confinement (cc) mode caused by hydrogen bonds. Four different relaxation modes were detected, whereupon two modes seem to depend on the length of the inner B‐block and one on the length of the outer A‐blocks. One mode below room temperature could be identified as a secondary relaxation which belongs to the B‐block and is most likely induced by a cc. A softening of the polymer corresponding to the glass transition is found near to room temperature and surprisingly shifts to lower temperatures with increasing chain length of the B‐block. A second softening of the ABA type copolymers is caused by the AA containing A‐blocks and was found at higher temperatures. magnified image