Abstract
In this study, the in-situ compatibilization reaction between recycled acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene copolymer (rABS) and functional styrene–ethylene–butylene–styrene block maleic anhydride (SEBS-g-MAH) was confirmed, which contributed to the toughening phenomenon of rABS, especially the notched impact strength. As mechanical test that manifested, the rABS/SEBS-g-MAH blends are stronger and more ductile than the rABS/SEBS blends. Prominently, the former has great advantage over the latter in terms of improving the impact performance. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed that the compatible segments that were generated by reaction not only improve the interface adhesion of rABS/SEBS-g-MAH blends but also promote the evolution of co-continuous structures, which can be evidently observed after etching. Furthermore, the SEM micrographs of tensile fracture surfaces indicated that the formation of the co-continuous phase and the improvement of interface adhesion are the most profound reasons for the excellent tensile properties of the rABS/SEBS-g-MAH blends. The impact fracture surface revealed that two-phase interface affects crack propagation and shear yielding absorbs more impact energy than simple interface debonding does at higher deformation rates. Meanwhile, rheological analysis demonstrated that the complex viscosity of the rABS/SEBS-g-MAH (80/20 wt%) blend with a co-continuous structure exhibits a maximum positive deviation at low frequencies from the theoretical value calculated using the rule of logarithmic sum, which indicated a connection between co-continuous structure and complex viscosity. In addition, the storage modulus vs. loss modulus curves of the blends revealed that the viscoelastic behavior of rABS/SEBS-g-MAH blends is very similar to that of rABS.
Highlights
Recycled plastic has been emphasized due to the increasingly scarce petroleum resources, as well as the gradually ascending demand of protecting environment [1,2,3]
Contrary, the impact strength of recycled acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene copolymer (rABS)/SEBS-g-maleic anhydride (MAH) blends rises with the increase of the the impact strength of rABS/SEBS-g-MAH blends rises with the increase of the SEBS-g-MAH content, SEBS-g-MAH content, which shows a positive correlation
Through the analysis of mechanical properties, we found that the rABS/SEBS-g-MAH blends have more excellent tensile strength, ductility, and impact resistance than rABS/SEBS blends and rABS do
Summary
Recycled plastic has been emphasized due to the increasingly scarce petroleum resources, as well as the gradually ascending demand of protecting environment [1,2,3]. The toughening modification of recycled plastics has been extensively studied [9,10]. Among these studies, it is generally thought that the microstructures have a significant effect on the mechanical properties of blends. In-situ reactive compatibilization has been proved to be an efficient approach for reducing interfacial tension [11,12] and promoting the evolution of phase morphology of blends [13,14]. The performance of in-situ reactive compatibilization generally depends on the reaction between maleic anhydride (MAH) and –OH [15,16], and the reaction between glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and –COOH or –OH [17,18]. In the blend with ABS as the main phase, generally the compatibilizer is compatible with ABS and react with another phase
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