Mechanical creep and recovery of poly(styrene‐b‐ethylene/butylene‐b‐styrene) (SEBS), sulfonated SEBS (sSEBS), and sSEBS/silicate nanostructured materials

Creep and recovery of poly(styrene‐b‐ethylene/butylene‐b‐styrene) (SEBS) and sulfonated SEBS (sSEBS) materials having various percent sulfonation, some of which were exchanged with monovalent counterions, and sSEBS/silicate hybrids, were investigated. Explanations offered for tensile and shear creep reduction for low degrees of sulfonation involved hydrogen bonding between SO3H groups and/or observed frustrated morphologies. At higher sulfonation levels, an increase in overall percent strain was rationalized in terms of either a more distinct EB phase morphology, or to residual water bound to sulfonic acid groups. This effect was also observed when the acid form materials were ion‐exchanged with monovalent counterions. The behavior of silicate‐containing systems is situational and less understood. An equation for a modified Burgers viscoelastic model was seen to fit the creep data very well.