Reactive compatibilizer-tracer: A powerful tool for designing, scaling up and optimizing reactive blending processes

30th International Conference of the Polymer-Processing-Society (PPS), Cleveland, OH, JUN 06-12, 2014International audienceA concept of reactive compatibilizer-tracer is developed to study reactive polymer blending processes in a twin screw extruder. It is summarized as follows. Fluorescent moieties such as anthracene are attached to a reactive compatibilizer so that the latter can be served both as a compatibilizer and a tracer. When evaluating its compatibilizing efficiency for a polymer blending system, unlike the polymer components of the blend which are continuously fed to the extruder, the reactive compatibilizer-tracer is added as a pulse. The concentration of the reactive compatibilizer-tracer in the polymer blend at the die exit is measured, in-line and in real time, using probes capable of detecting the signal of the emission of fluorescent moieties of the reactive compatibilizer-tracer. In the meantime, the corresponding size of the dispersed phase domains of the blend is determined off-line. These two pieces of information allow assessing the compatibilizing efficiency of a reactive compatibilizer in a much easier manner and using a much smaller amount of compatibilizer. Consequently, the concept of reactive compatibilizer-tracer can help select most appropriate compatibilizers under real industrial polymer blending conditions as well as scaling up and/or optimizing them