Melting Behavior Of Blends Research Articles

Effect of blending way on β-crystallization tendency of compatibilized β-nucleated isotactic polypropylene/poly(ethylene terephthalate) blends

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the β-crystallization tendency in the β-nucleated iPP blends. The β-nucleated iPP/compatibilizers blends, β-nucleated iPP/PET blends and its compatibilized versions with four kinds of compatibilizers (PP-g-MA, PP-g-GMA, POE-g-MA, and EVA-g-MA) were prepared by different blending ways. The effect of compatibilizers and blending ways on the non-isothermal crystallization and melting characteristics and the β-crystallization tendency of β-nucleated iPP blends were studied by differential scanning calorimetry. The relative content of the β-phase were characterised by the k β values determined on the basis of the wide angle X-ray diffractogram. The results indicated that the β-crystallization tendency of β-nucleated iPP blends depends on the kinds of compatibilizer. Addition of PP-g-MA significantly reduced the β-crystallization tendency of β-nucleated iPP, while PP-g-GMA, POE-g-MA, and EVA-g-MA have little effect on it. In the compatibilized β-nucleated iPP/PET blends, the blending ways, which controlled the dispersion of β-nucleating agent, influences the β-crystallization tendency intensively. The high β-crystallization tendency and β-crystal content were obtained for compatibilized β-nucleated iPP/PET blends prepared firstly at high temperature and β-nucleating agent added into blends at low temperature; however, the type of compatibilizers has little effect on β-crystallization tendency and melting behavior of blends.

Multiple shape-memory behavior and thermal-mechanical properties of peroxide cross-linked blends of linear and short-chain branched polyethylenes

Thermally induced shape-memory effect (SME) in tensile mode was investigated in binary and ternary blends of two ethylene-1-octene copolymers with a degree of branching of 30 and 60 CH3/1000C and/or nearly linear polyethylene cross-linked after melt mixing with 2 wt% of liquid peroxide 2,5-dimethyl-2,5-di-(tert.butylperoxy)-hexane at 190°C. The average cross-link density estimated by means of the Mooney-Rivlin equation on the basis of tensile test data was character- ized between 130 and 170 mol·m-3 depending on the blend composition. Thermal analysis points out multiple crystalliza- tion and melting behavior of blends caused by the existence of several polyethylene crystal populations with different perfection, size and correspondingly different melting temperature of crystallites. That agrees well with the diversity of blends phase morphology characterized by atomic force microscopy. However, triple- and quadruple-SME could be observed only after two- and accordingly three-step programming of binary and tertiary blends, respectively, at suitable temperatures and strains. Compared to performances obtained for the same blend after single-step programming above the maximal melting temperature the significantly poorer characteristics of SME like strain fixity and strain recovery ratio as well as recovery strain rate occurred after multi-step programming.

Non-isothermal crystallization and melting behavior of compatibilized polypropylene/recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate) blends

Binary blends of polypropylene (PP)/recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate) (r-PET), r-PET/maleic anhydride grafted PP (PP-g-MA), r-PET/glycidyl methacrylate grafted PP (PP-g-GMA), and ternary blends of PP/r-PET (80/20 w/w) compatibilized with various amounts (2–10 wt%) of PP-g-MA or PP-g-GMA were prepared on a twin-screw extruder. The non-isothermal crystallization and melting behavior, and the crystallization morphology were investigated by DSC and POM. The chemical reactions of r-PET with PP-g-MA and PP-g-GMA were characterized by FT-IR. DSC results show that the crystallization peak temperatures ( T c p ) of r-PET and PP increased when blending them together, due to the heterogeneous nucleation effect on each other. The T c p of r-PET increased with increasing the content of PP-g-MA while slightly influenced by the content of PP-g-GMA in the binary blends of r-PET with grafted PP, implying different reactivity of r-PET with PP-g-MA and PP-g-GMA. The T c p of PP in the ternary blends retained or slightly decreased, dependent on the compatibilizers and their contents. The melting peak temperature ( T m p ) of r-PET in PP/r-PET blends compatibilized by PP-g-MA was lower than that of compatibilized by PP-g-GMA, indicating that PP-g-MA had stronger reactivity towards r-PET compared to PP-g-GMA. The crystallization and melting behavior of blends was influenced by the pre-melting temperature, especially the melting behavior of r-PET in the blends. The crystallization behavior of PP in the blends was also evaluated by Mo’s method. POM confirmed the heterogeneous nucleation effect of r-PET on PP.

Thermal Analysis of Crystalline Polymer Blends

PEI/PEEK blends have been prepared and analysed by DSC. The blends are compatible over the full composition range in that amorphous samples are transparent and exhibit a single Tg varying with composition between the limits of the two components. The crystallisation kinetics of PEEK from the blend melt has been measured by DSC but the technique is limited to blend compositions above 20% PEEK. The use of a polarised light microscope to measure crystallization kinetics and melting behaviour of blends with compositions as low as 2 and 5% PEEK is discussed. In general, since the extent rather than the rate of crystallization is measured directly, the polarised light microscopy extends the measurement to slower rates and so to a wider temperature range.