We report an approach for the design of nanostructured thermoplastic elastomeric materials consisting of poly(styrene- b -butadiene- b -styrene) and epoxy. This approach consists in the epoxidation of PB block and further mixing with low contents of the DGEBA:MCDEA system. Morphological behavior as well as thermal and mechanical properties have been investigated. The modification of epoxidized SBS with 10, 20, and 30 wt % epoxy system induces microphase separation at nanoscale from a poorly to well-ordered self-assembled morphology where the shape of these structures depends greatly on the mixture compositions, showing a transition from worm-like to lamellae. The generated nanostructures are accessible owing to the miscibility between the epoxidized PB block and the epoxy system that have been confirmed by an increment on the T g (before and after curing) of this block in the mixture. The mixing produces a significant increase on strength and stiffness being more relevant in the system with 30 wt % epoxy and well-ordered lamellar morphology.
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Ocando et al. (2013) studied this question.