Barrier property enhancement of polyamide 6 by blending with a polyhydroxyamino‐ether resin

Abstract

AbstractIn this work, the transport properties of the system formed by polyamide 6 (PA6) and polyhydroxyamino‐ether resin (PHAE) have been studied after characterizing the miscibility behavior. A single glass transition has been observed using differential scanning calorimetry that usually means total miscibility, but measurements by solid‐state cross‐polarization magic angle spinning NMR have shown that this system is only partially miscible, in good agreement with phase behavior reported before. Both carbon dioxide and water vapor transport properties of PA6/PHAE blends have been measured. For both penetrants, permeability coefficient shows an interesting negative deviation from the additive value, even the barrier character to carbon dioxide of pure PHAE is maintained up to 60 % in PA6 composition. Besides, PHAE reduces the plasticization effect of water in PA6. These improvements are very interesting for the PA 6 due to its wide use in packaging applications. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 47: 1625–1634, 2009