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Morphological and rheological footprints corroborating optimum foam processability of PP/ethylene acrylic elastomer blend
Author(s) -
Dutta Anindya,
Ghosh Anup K.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.46322
Subject(s) - materials science , elastomer , composite material , taguchi methods , rheology , polypropylene , thermoplastic elastomer , plastics extrusion , scanning electron microscope , extrusion , viscosity , copolymer , polymer
The focus of the present work is optimization of microcellular foam processing of Polypropylene (PP)/ethylene acrylic elastomer blends, through design of experiment approach using Taguchi technique and establishing correlation among foamability, morphological, and rheological parameters of blends. PP and elastomer are melt blended in a twin screw extruder and thereafter foaming parameter optimization is carried out using Taguchi method followed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) for batch foaming setup. Scanning electron microscope reveals development of submicron elastomer domains, which increase with the elastomer content. Further, complex viscosity and van Grup–Palmen plots are found to have a vital role in attaining cellular morphology development in blends. From Taguchi and ANOVA analysis it is established that foaming temperature has a great influence and major contribution on foamability. Blends with low elastomer content are optimized for better foamability using statistical approach and proved to be consistent with the morphological and rheological outcomes. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135 , 46322.