Morphology and mechanical behaviors of rigid organic particles reinforced polycarbonate

Abstract

AbstractFor the purpose of promoting mechanical properties of bisphenol‐A polycarbonate (PC) reinforced by rigid organic styrene–acrylonitrile copolymer (SAN) particles, styrene/acrylonitrile/glycidyl methacrylate terpolymer (SAG) was synthesized and applied as compatibilizer for PC/SAN blends. It is found that the phase morphology of PC/SAN/SAG blends is closely related with their mechanical properties. Large continuously distributed SAN phase or spherical dispersed SAN particles with average diameter over 2 μm tend to trigger premature tensile failure of blends due to stress concentration. The incorporation of SAG can simultaneously reinforce and toughen PC/SAN blends by controlling the size and distribution of the dispersed SAN particles. For the blends with fixed PC/SAN ratio, the elongation at break and fracture energy are markedly improved when SAN domain size is reduced by adding appropriate amount of SAG. Typically, for blends with a PC/SAN ratio of 75/25, adding 3 wt% SAG will cause the average diameter of SAN particles to reduce from 2.35 ± 1.20 to 0.74 ± 0.25 μm, meanwhile up to 95% increment in elongation at break and 115% increment in fracture energy is achieved.