Thermal behavior, morphology, and mechanical properties of blend strands consisting of poly(ethylene telephthalate) and semiaromatic liquid crystalline polymer

Abstract

Polymer blends of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and a liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) [random copolymers of the poly(ethylene telephthalate) and poly(hydroxybenzoic acid)] were prepared by using a twin-screw extruder. Strands were extruded from a capillary die. Extruded strands were stretched in an oven at 80°C. DSC and SEM were employed to investigate the structural properties of the strands. Mechanical properties of the strands were evaluated by a sonic propagation method. DSC investigation suggested that LCP phases may act as a nucleating agent of PET and the orientation-induced crystallization of PET was accelerated by the presence of LCP. An SEM micrograph shows that the LCP phases formed finely spherical domains with a diameter of 0.1-1.0 μm in the PET matrix and large parts of LCP spherical droplets were deformed to fibrils. In the case of unstretched strands, sonic moduli increased linearly with increasing LCP content, because PET was reinforced by LCP fibrils as in the case of glass fiber-reinforced PET. The degree of crystallization of PET also increased with increasing LCP contents. In the case of stretched strands, sonic moduli increased with an increasing stretching ratio due to the orientation-induced crystallization of PET. A larger increasing of the sonic modulus was shown in LCP-containing strands in the regions of a low stretching ratio (1-5), since the orientation-induced crystallization of PET was accelerated by the presence of LCP phases.