Phase behaviour, mechanical properties and thermal stability of thermosetting polymer blends of unsaturated polyester resin and poly(ethylene oxide)

The results of dynamic mechanical analysis reveal that crosslinked polyester resin (PER)/poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) blends show a composition dependent glass transition temperature, Tg, which suggests that the blends studied are homogeneous in the amorphous state. The initial dynamic storage modulus, E', decreases with increasing PEO content up to 30 wt% in the blends, whereas E for both the 60/40 and 40/60 PER/PEO blends is close to that for the 80/20 PER/PEO blend and much larger than that for the 70/30 PER/PEO blend. The addition of crystalline PEO has a remarkable effect on the mechanical properties of crosslinked PER. Tensile testing shows that the elongation at break first increases greatly and then decreases slightly, whereas the Young's modulus and the tensile strength first decrease and then increase slightly with increasing PEO content in the blends. The variation of tensile properties was considered to be due to both the plasticization effect and the crystallization effect of PEO in the blends. The impact strength remains almost unchanged with increasing PEO content in the blends studied. No dramatic decrease of thermal stability for PER/PEO blends was observed for the blends with PEO content up to 30 wt%.