Morphology-tensile behavior relationship in injection molded poly(ethylene terephthalate)/polyethylene and polycarbonate/polyethylene blends (II) Part II Tensile behavior

Abstract

The tensile behavior of injection molded poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)/polyethylene (PE) and polycarbonate (PC)/PE blends was investigated. For the same blend, due to the difference in the elongated dispersed particle concentration, the specimens molded at higher injection speed had slightly higher tensile strength and modulus than those molded at lower speed. Moreover, the reinforcement effect of PC to PE matrix was more noticeable than PET to PE. For the stress-strain behavior, while the PET/PE blend behaved like a common injection-molded immiscible blend the PC/PE blend unusually underwent twice yielding regardless of the cross head speed. For the PET/PE blend, obvious debonding between the dispersed PET particles and the matrix PE occurred upon elongation, resulting in large grooves and voids behind the particles. The PET particles experienced slight plastic deformation from spheres to ellipsoids. The stress whitening first appeared in the necking zone then extended along cold drawing zone. For the PC/PE blend, the PC particles in the core layer experienced considerable plastic deformation throughout the tensile test. Consequently, most of PC particles in the fractured specimen were deformed into fibers. Owing to comparatively high amount of injection-induced fibers that distributed or transferred the external stress, the specimen of PC/PE blend first deformed evenly in the entire tested zone, characterized by stress whitening in the entire specimen. Then after the first yielding, the stress decreased slowly while the elongation continued. When the elongation reached a certain point, the fibers in the sub-skin layer could no longer endure the external stress, and accordingly the second yield took place. Additionally, the fibrillation of the spherical PC particles in the core layer appeared right after the second yielding point.