Dynamic mechanical,rheological, and morphological studies of polyacrylate-graft-poly (vinyl chloride) suspension resin

A series of polyacrylate-graft-poly (vinyl chloride) (ACR-g-PVC) resins were prepared through suspension graft copolymerization. Three kinds of polyacrylate latices were grafted by vinyl chloride using suspension polymerization method at 57 ± 0.1°C, respectively. The dynamic mechanical and rheological properties and the morphology of the resulting ACR-g-PVC resins were investigated. Poly (butyl acrylate)-graft-poly (vinyl chloride) (PBA-g-PVC) resin exhibited better toughness, and the optimized content of PBA in ACR-g-PVC resin was 6–8 wt%. The melt viscosity of ACR-g-PVC resin was much lower than that of pure PVC. The nature of the fracture surfaces of ACR-g-PVC material indicated that it has good toughness. The impact strength of the PBA-g-PVC material was greatly improved compared with that of pure PVC. The Young's modulus of the ACR-g-PVC material containing less than 15 wt% of PBA was comparable to that of pure PVC according to their dynamic mechanical analysis curves. For all of the ACR-g-PVC resins, there were two individual relaxations in the low-temperature range. One was β transition of PVC, and the other was α transition of ACR. The glass transition temperature of PVC in the ACR-g-PVC resin shifted to lower temperature when the content of the PBA was above 50 wt%. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 47:996–1003, 2007. © 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers