Comonomer Effect on the Thermal, Morphological and Mechanical Properties of Poly(ethylene-co-octene)/Poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) Blends

Abstract

The blends of ethylene-octene copolymers with octene content of 15 and 3 wt % and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer were studied by thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, atomic force microscopy, and tensile experiments. Thermal behavior reveals that the addition of ethylene-octene copolymer improves the thermal stability of ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer. Two single crystallization temperatures were detected. The surface morphology shows thin and elongated crystallites of neat ethylene-octene copolymer containing 3 wt % of octene and a bulky, random morphology for both the neat ethylene-octene copolymer containing 15 wt % of octane and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, where a perfect mixture of aforementioned structures shows for 50/50 blend, with the immiscible domains of both ethylene-octene and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers. Additionally, the surface roughness of 50/50 blends is in between of the neat copolymers. All the experimental data confirms the immiscible nature of the blends. The mechanical properties of the binary blends were found to be between the values of the corresponding neat components.