Preparation and characterization of microcellular foamed thermoplastic polyamide elastomer composite consisting of EVA/TPAE1012

Abstract

AbstractThermoplastic polyamide elastomer (TPAE) is a kind of high‐performance elastomers prepared from nylon hard segments and polyether or polyester soft segments. The hard segments endow TPAE with excellent mechanical properties, while the soft segments provide the desired elasticity. Therefore, the development of TPAE as a high‐performance foam material has broad application prospects. In this work, ethylene‐vinyl acetate copolymer/polyamide‐1012 elastomer (EVA/TPAE1012) composite materials with different compositions were prepared, using ethylene‐vinyl acetate /maleic anhydride graft copolymer (EVA‐g‐MAH) as compatibilizer. Then, EVA/TPAE foamed materials were fabricated by chemical foaming method and batch foaming process, with azodicarbonamide as blowing agent. The resulting composite foams were tested in terms of density, cell properties hardness, resilience, compression recovery, and mechanical strength. The EVA/TPAE1012 foam has a low density (0.14 g cm−3), small cell size (approximately 62.1 μm), and a high cell density (3.08 × 107 cells cm−3). Compared with pure EVA foam, the composite foam not only has an increase in specific strength, resilience and tearing strength, but also has good toughness, which greatly improves the resulting foams' expansion ratio and elongation at break.