Effect of Rubber Content in Acrylonitrile–Butadiene–Styrene and Additional Rubber on The Polymer Blends of Polycarbonate and Acrylonitrile–Butadiene–Styrene

Abstract

Higher ABS rubber content in the polycarbonate (PC)/acrynitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) blend resulted in toughness improvement in terms of tensile, Izod impact and strain energy release rate at a cost of higher melt viscosity. The extra-added core-shell rubber particles with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) or acrylonitrile–styrene (SAN) outer shell resided mainly in the ABS phase and further improved the resulted blends toughness. The addition of styrene–maleic anhydride (SMA) copolymer in the PC/ABS blends caused severe coagulation of the rubber particles in the ABS phase and left a greater fraction of the SAN phase without presence of rubber. The toughness improvement by increasing rubber content must be compensated by the increase of melt viscosity and this fact has to be taken into consideration in selecting the starting materials of the PC/ABS blends.