Abstract
Abstract The reuse of rubber waste is very important today, both to reduce the harm-ful effects on the environment, and to reduce the cost of new material development. Considering that most of the studies reported in literature refer to the reuse of tire waste, this article aims to evaluate the influence of styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) and styrene-(ethylene-butylene)-styrene grafted with maleic anhydride (SEBS-MA) compatibilizers on the blend performance of polystyrene (PS)/styrene-butadiene rub-ber residue (SBRr), which come from the footwear industry. The blends were prepared in a co-rotating twin screw extruder and then were molded by injection. They were analyzed by impact and tensile tests, heat deflection temperature (HDT), ductile-brittle transition temperature, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) and transmis-sion electron microscopy (TEM). The results evidenced that the use of any of the com -patibilizers on the PS/SBRr blend significantly increased the impact strength, while the tensile properties and HDT were lower when compared to the polymer matrix. The ductile-brittle transition temperature remains at approximately 25°C range for all the blends. In general, it has been proved that the SBS was the most effective compatibiliza -tion process in the PS/SBRr system. The DMTA test shows the presence of two distinct temperature peaks. The morphologies obtained by TEM of binary and ternary blends were quite different and typical of immiscible blend. The results show a good perspec -tive regarding the use of industrial waste (SBRr), since it may enhance a material that would be discarded.
Highlights
The problem of rubber waste, both industrial and post-consumer, is of great importance today (Weber et al, 2008)
The value observed for PS/SBS + SBR mixture (~ 71°C) is very interesting from a technological point of view, as it had a decrease of only 11.2% of heat deflection temperature (HDT) when compared to PS, whereas there was an increase of approximately 302% in impact strength, even using 47.5% of footwear waste
The SBS was more effective during the compatibilizing process of the PS/styrene-butadiene rubber residue (SBRr) system, increasing by 302% the impact strength compared to PS
Summary
The problem of rubber waste, both industrial and post-consumer, is of great importance today (Weber et al, 2008). It is known that these materials have relatively high resistance to biological agents and to climate changes, causing serious problems to the environment at large when discarded. Both economic aspects and environmental pollution are justification for the efforts to promote the recycling of these polymer materials (Luna et al, 2015a). One of the ways to reuse rubber waste is through mixtures with thermoplastics, i.e., the development of polymer blends In these cases, infusible residues are dispersed in the thermoplastic matrix during processing, acting as flexible loads (Brennan et al, 2002; Silva et al, 2016). Other advantages for the use of mixtures are: improve the processability and/or properties; reduce product cost; and reuse of polymer waste
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