The Effect of Compatibilizer on Morphology and Mechanical Properties of PA6/UHMWPE Blends

Abstract

This work deal with the effect of compatibilizer on the morphological and mechanic properties of polyamide 6 and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (PA6/UHMWPE) blends. The blends were prepared by means of a twin-screw extruder. The compatibilizer was produced by grafting maleic anhydride (MAH) onto high density polyethylene (HDPE). The resulting HDPE-g-MAH was used to prepare ternary blends of PA6/HDPE-g-MAH/UHMWPE by melt mixing. The size of domain of UHMWPE in PA6/HDPE-g-MAH/UHMWPE blends is much smaller than that in PA6/UHMWPE blends. It was found that mechanical properties of PA6/HDPE-g-MAH/UHMWPE blends obviously surpassed that of PA6/UHMWPE blends. These behavior could be attributed to chemical reactions between MAH in HDPE-g-MAH and terminal amino groups of PA6. Thermal analysis were performed to confirm the possible chemical reactions taken place during the blending process.