Abstract
The mechanical properties, morphology, and crystallization behavior of polycarbonate (PC)/polypropylene (PP) blends, with and without compatibilizer, were studied by tensile and impact tests, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The tensile and impact strengths of PC/PP blends decreased with increasing the PP content due to poor compatibility between the two phases. But the addition of compatibilizer improved the mechanical properties of the PC/PP blends, and the maximum value of the mechanical properties, such as tensile and impact strengths of PC/PP (80/20 wt%) blends, were obtained when the compatibilizer was used at the amount of 4 phr. The SEM indicated that the compatibility and interfacial adhesion between PC and PP phases were enhanced. DSC results that showed the crystallization and melting peak temperatures of PP increased with the increase of the PP content, which indicated that the amorphous PC affected the crystallization behavior. However, both the PC and compatibilizer had little effect on the crystallinity of PP in PC/PP blends based on both the DSC and XRD patterns.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51003088), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (20100184120006), the National Science and Technology Supporting Project Foundation of China (2007BAB08B05), the Sishi Star Foundations of Southwest Jiaotong University (2012), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SWJTU12CX009, SWJTU11ZT10) for financial supports of this work.