Abstract
The dielectric behavior of polybutadiene copolymers with different compositions of 1,2 and 1,4 units is analyzed to study the influence of the microstructure on the relaxation spectrum, especially the β relaxation. The experimental data were obtained between 10-2 and 106 Hz and temperatures above and below Tg. Above Tg, the relaxation spectra are described by the superposition of two processes, the main α relaxation at low frequencies and a β relaxation at high frequencies. The α relaxation has the typical Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann behavior and exhibits a quasi-linear shift of time scale upon change of the vinyl content. The high-frequency process shows Arrhenius behavior only in the case of the homopolymers. For the other samples with a mixture of microstructures, spectral broadening occurs and deviation from the Arrhenius behavior is observed. In these samples, the relaxation can be modeled by the simple assumption that the high-frequency process consists of a superposition of two separate processes, each with the properties of the β relaxation of one of the homopolymers. This suggests that secondary relaxations can relax quite independently from the segmental relaxation and are therefore restricted to a very local environment influenced by intramolecular interaction.