Morphological, crystallization and plasticization studies on isomorphic blends of poly (vinyl fluoride) (PVF) and poly (vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF): using microhardness, XRD and SEM techniques

Property modification by blending of polymers has been the area of immense interest. In this paper, the isomorphic blends of two polymers poly (vinyl fluoride) (PVF) and poly (vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF) with different ratios were prepared using solution cast technique. The microhardness studies have been carried out on pure and polyblend specimens at various loads to test the plasticization and hardening effects using Vickers microhardness testing. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) study has been utilized to detect the crystalline and amorphous characteristics of specimens. Thus PVDF acts as plasticizer in the polyblend when the content of PVDF is relatively high as compare to PVF. When the PVF is major component in the polyblend, the microhardness of the blend specimen increases and the isomorphic blend specimens with 50:50 proportion of two polymers exhibit the maximum value of microhardness. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs indicate complete chain formation with uniform texture, when the two polymers are blended in equal proportions. The findings of XRD and SEM have been correlated with the microhardness values.