Interrelationship of strength and flow characteristics of polystyrene

Abstract

AbstractThis study investigated the interrelationship between strength and flow characteristics of general‐purpose polystyrene (GPPS) used in injection molding applications. The ease of flow was chosen as a measure of processability and was evaluated using the melt flow rate and capillary rheometer techniques. Of the different strength tests that were examined, flexural and notched tensile strength tests were most effective in differentiating between commercial grades of high and low molecular weight GPPS. While characterizing strength of injection molded specimens, the degree of molecular orientation was taken into consideration. For unplasticized resins, increasing the weight average molecular weight by about 100,000 enhanced the flexural strength by 10%, but also increased the viscosity at low shear rates (10 to 100 s−1). The increase in molecular weight had virtually no effect on viscosity at the highest shear rates (up to 10,000 s−1). Plasticized resins displayed a 6% loss in flexural strength as well as a significant reduction in viscosity (throughout the shear rate range) as compared with the unplasticized resins. As expected, the improvement in strength achieved by increasing molecular weight leads to a simultaneous increase in the viscosity, i.e., a deterioration of processability. In addition, our study indicates that for samples without preferential molecular orientation, narrowing the molecular weight distribution significantly improves the balance of strength and melt flow rate properties.