Rubber toughened glass fibre reinforced high impact polystyrene

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of combining reinforcement agents (i.e. glass fibres) and rubber particles (ethylene-propylene grafted maleic anhydride, EP-g-MA) on the properties of high impact polystyrene (HIPS). HIPS was melt blended and compounded with EP-g-MA and glass fibres at a total weight percentage of both constituents ranging from 0 to 10 wt-%. HIPS content was kept fixed in all prepared samples of 90 wt-%. Samples for testing were prepared in accordance with ASTM 265D and ASTM D 1708 for Izod impact strength and tensile strength, respectively. It was shown that the toughness of HIPS could be significantly enhanced by proper combination of EP-g-MA and glass fibres. Composites with EP-g-MA content greater than 7 wt-% and glass fibre content of 3 wt-% had izod impact strength values greater than 99 J m⁻¹ which reflects 11–77% enhancement over those value for neat HIPS and HIPS reinforced with 10 wt-% glass fibres .

KEYWORDS:

• high impact polystyrene
• ethylene propylene rubber
• glass fibres
• mechanical properties

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors deeply thank King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) for providing fund to carry out this research.