Miscibility behavior of ethylene/vinyl acetate and C5 petroleum resin by FTIR imaging.

FTIR microscopic imaging was used to investigate the miscibility behavior of ethylene/vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) and C5 petroleum resin. Images with an area of 500 x 500 microm(2) were collected in the reflection mode. The miscibility was characterized by probing the spatial distribution of the carbonyl group (C=O) of EVA in the whole images. It was found that a 1:1 hot-melt mixture of EVA and C5 resin showed a good miscibility behavior. For two different EVA copolymers, one with 18% vinyl acetate (VAc) content showed a better miscibility behavior than that with 28% VAc content. Our results demonstrated that this method allowed a direct, convenient and nondestructive visualization. This developed technique promises to become a powerful tool for studying the miscibility behavior of composite materials.