Interfacing polypropylene/poly(BPA carbonate) blend phases with graft copolymers: Thermal and dynamic mechanical analyses

Abstract

AbstractThis paper presents data on the thermal, dynamic, and mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP) blends with bisphenol‐A‐polycarbonate (PC), to which a series of graft and block copolymers in a small quantity was added. The effect of the minor component on the crystallization and relaxation behavior of PP in the blends has been investigated and correlated with the mechanical properties obtained. The results demonstrate that the graft copolymeric additives to the blends can reduce the degree of undercooling (Tm°C − Tc°C) of the PP phase. However, the block copolymers used, substituting for the graft copolymers, showed no such function. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) indicates that, with the addition of several different copolymers as minor additives to the blends, two loss peaks representing the glassy transitions (Tg) of the individual components (PP and PC) were retained, with little tendency of approaching toward each other, suggesting no obvious improvement in compatibility of the PP phase and the PC phase in the blends. Nevertheless, the inclusion of different copolymers in the PP/PC blends, in spite of the small quantity used (4%), can lead to a significant mechanical property difference of the blends. This difference could be reasonably explained from the data obtained in dynamic mechanical characterization of the different graft copolymers in PP blends.