Modification of Polyolefins: An Overview

Abstract

Polymer-polymer blends are the most exciting and promising area for generating novel materials with improved properties in relatively short development times [11. Among different types of blends one can distinguish two important categories. The first category involves homogeneous polymer alloys, which exhibit properties intermediate between those of the individual components following a simple monotonic function that depends on the ratio of the two polymers in the blend. The other category involves heterogeneous polymer blends, wherein one polymer (Polymer A) is dispersed within the other polymer, a continuous phase (Polymer B, Fig. 1) and they are immiscible. This type of blend has an important potential advantage in that it provides the additivity of the phase properties along with new features derived from a unique and particular morphology. For such engineered properties, the dispersed phase should be evenly dispersed in finely divided domains throughout the continuous phase. Such properties are generally achieved by suitable modifiers, which can interlink the phases as depicted in Fig. 2 [2].