Novel milling route for controlling structure and properties in SBS elastomer blends containing dispersed PA6 and PP particles

Abstract

A novel technique to optimise the morphology and thus to enhance the mechanical properties of styrene/butadiene/styrene (SBS) triblock copolymer blends containing dispersed polyamide 6 (PA6)/polypropylene (PP) is reported. The SBS-PA6-PP composite was prepared by blending SBS with PA6-PP ultrafine powder, which was obtained by pulverising PA6 and PP in a pan mill at ambient temperature. The mechanical properties of the composite were determined and the variations of the phase structure of the composites prepared at different processing temperatures were studied by TEM. The thermooxidative stabilities of the composites were tested by thermogrivimetry (TG). The results indicate that preparing a PA6-PP ultrafine powder by the solid state mechanochemical process can improve the compatibility of PA6 with PP and SBS and accelerate the dispersion of PP and PA6 as well as their combination with SBS at the phase interface. The tensile strength of the composite can be increased greatly with an ultrafine powder content of 4-8%, while the elongation at break remains approximately constant. The variation of processing temperature causes a change in the phase structure of the plastics, which has a great effect on the properties of the composite. When the processing is carried out at the melting temperature of the PP, the PP particles combine to form a fibrillar structure that can increase the tensile strength of the matrix from 12·7 to 25 0 MPa. The temperature at which a 10% weight loss occurs in the composite increases from 396·0 to 412·7°C and the temperature of maximum weight loss increases from 454·3 to 479·3°C with an ultrafine powder content of 4%. PRC/1747