Toughness Improvement in Ternary HDPE/PS/PET Polymer Blends with Compatibilizer

Abstract

Preparing polymer blends is an effective way to develop new raw materials. In the present study, the morphological and mechanical properties were investigated of ternary polymer blends. Immiscible plastics: polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polystyrene (PS) were blended, which can be found in post- consumer waste in large quantities and compatibilizer agents were also added to the blend. Three different processing methods, internal mixing, extrusion and injection moulding were used during the production. The results show that the best mechanical properties can be achieved if the ternary polymer blends are produced by extrusion followed by injection moulding or direct injection moulding without prior homogenization, and styrene/ethylene-butylene/styrene copolymer grafted with maleic anhydride (SEBS-g-MA) was also added to the polymer blend.