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Reactive blending of polypropylene/polyamide‐6 in the presence of tailor‐made succinic anhydride‐terminated oligopropene compatibilizers
Author(s) -
Mülhaupt Rolf,
Duschek Thomas,
Rösch Joachim
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
polymers for advanced technologies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.61
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1099-1581
pISSN - 1042-7147
DOI - 10.1002/pat.1993.220040710
Subject(s) - materials science , polyamide , succinic anhydride , polypropylene , reactive extrusion , polymer science , polymer chemistry , composite material , chemical engineering , polymer , engineering
Various anhydride‐terminated isotactic and atactic oligopropenes of number average molecular weights ranging between 1,000 and 10,000 g/mole, prepared by maleinating vinylidene‐terminated propene oligomers obtained with isospecific and nonstereospecific metallocene‐based Ziegler–Natta catalysts, have been evaluated as blend compatibilizers of polypropylene/polyamide‐6 (70 vol%/30 vol%) blends to study the role of blend compatibilizer molecular architecture. When added during processing, as shown by IR spectroscopic analysis, the anhydride‐terminated oligopropenes react with the amine‐terminated polyamide‐6 to yield polypropylene‐block‐polyamide‐6 in situ. Such block copolymers are efficient dispersing agents. While the polyamide dispersion in the polypropylene continuous phase is not affected by blend compatibilizer stereoregularities, both stiffness and yield stress as well as notched Charpy impact strength increase with increasing stereoregularities and molecular weights. With oligopropene molecular weights exceeding 1,150 g/mole, the average size of the dispersed polyamide microphases correlates with the volume fraction of the oligopropene‐block‐polyamide‐6 blend compatibilizer and the dicarboxylic acid anhydride/amine molar ratio.