Investigation of phase morphology of incompatible polyethylene/nylon 6 blends containing EPDM-based functionalized compatibilizers

Abstract

Graft copolymer and graft terpolymer were prepared by solution grafting of maleic anhydride(MAH) or acrylonitrile(AN) alone and mixture of MAH and AN on to ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer(EPDM) using benzoyl peroxide(BPO) as an initiator. The resulting EPDM-g-MAH, EPDM-g-AN and EPDM-g-(MAH-co-AN) have been used to obtain a binary blend of Nylon 6/funxtionalized EPDM and a ternary blend of polyethylene/Nylon 6/functionalized EPDM by melt blending. The effects of the nature and the amount of the grafted species on the phase morphology, crystallization behavior and mechanical properties of the blends were characterized through scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy, infrared spectroscopy and using a dynamic mechanical analyzer. From the morphological study, it can clearly be seen that the presence of the functionalized EPDMs in these blends resulted in an improvement of the dispersion degree in incompatible polyethylene/Nylon 6 blends.