In situ fiber composites based on metallocene polyethylene matrices

Abstract

AbstractBinary blends of metallocene polyethylenes with polyethylenes and polypropylene were made in a co‐rotating twin‐screw extruder. A stretching process was carried out afterwards in the melt state at the extruder's exit to study the effect of the induced orientation on their thermal and tensile properties. Capillary rheometry was performed to the neat polymers to determine the viscosity ratios of the blend components as a function of the shear rate. SEM and Micro‐Raman analyses were done to study the morphology of the stretched and nonstretched blends. As expected, an increase in the modulus and tensile stress was obtained through blending. Additionally, the elastomeric behavior of the metallocene polyethylene (mPE) sample is observed in all blends and it was not lost through blending. Nevertheless, all blends without stretching exhibited a negative deviation of the linear additivity rule of blending. The stretching of the blends made with metallocene polyethylenes as matrices and other types of PEs as dispersed phase did not improve the tensile properties, although some differences in the dispersed phases were found by DSC, and microfibrils could be seen in the drawn mPE/HDPE blend. However, blending with PP produced an improvement in the modulus and tensile stress of the drawn samples in comparison to their undrawn counterpart. The tensile stresses of PP blends are more sensitive to the drawing process than the modulus, which can be attributed to the appearance of large fibril fractions during this process. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007