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Environmental Stress‐Cracking Resistance of LDPE/EVA Blends
Author(s) -
Borisova Bistra,
Kressler Jörg
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/mame.200390048
Subject(s) - environmental stress cracking , materials science , ethylene vinyl acetate , composite material , crystallinity , annealing (glass) , low density polyethylene , cracking , polyethylene terephthalate , transmission electron microscopy , polyethylene , copolymer , stress corrosion cracking , polymer , nanotechnology , alloy
Blends of low‐density polyethylene with random copolymers of ethylene and vinyl acetate (PE/EVA) are studied with respect to their environmental stress‐cracking resistance (ESCR) using the Bell‐telephone test. This system shows the shortest time to failure in the ESCR test after annealing at 50 °C in a stress‐cracking agent (Igepal solution) compared with that in the tests conducted at 30 and 70 °C. The increase of the time to failure at 70 °C as compared with that at 50 °C is probably the result of the semicrystalline proportion of EVA melting. Transmission electron microscopy images (see Figure) reveal that EVA particles are molten and deformed in bending direction of the sample at 70 °C in contrast to samples annealed at 50 and 30 °C. TEM pictures of a failed sample during the test conducted at 50 °C indicate that EVA particles can stop crack propagation.TEM image of PE/EVA‐5.4 after 1 000 h in ESCR test conditions at 70 °C.