Effects of reactive melt mixing on the morphology and thermal behavior of linear low-density polyethylene/rubber blends |
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Authors: | Maurizio Penco Stefania Della Sciucca Elisa Passaglia Guido Giordani Serena Coiai Luca Di Landro |
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Affiliation: | 1. Dipartimento di Chimica e Fisica per l'Ingegneria e per i Materiali, Università degli Studi di Brescia, Via Valotti 9, 25133 Brescia, Italy;2. Istituto di Chimica dei Composti Organometallici (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), Sezione di Pisa, c/o Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, Università di Pisa, Via Risorgimento 35, 56126 Pisa, Italy;3. Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Via Risorgimento 35, 56126 Pisa, Italy;4. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Aerospaziale, Politecnico di Milano, Via La Masa 34, 20156 Milano, Italy |
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Abstract: | Linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE)/polybutadiene (PB) and LLDPE/poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene) (SBS) binary blends were prepared by simple melt mixing or by reactive blending in the presence of a free-radical initiator, and for comparison, pure LLDPE was treated under the same conditions with a comparable free-radical initiator concentration. The effect of the reactive melt mixing on the morphology of the blends was studied with transmission electron microscopy, and the corresponding particle size distributions were analyzed and compared to highlight the effects of the crosslinking and grafting phenomena. Thermal properties of the obtained materials were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). In particular, the effect of the reactive mixing parameters on the amorphous phase mobility was investigated. The influence of the chemical modification on the crystallization behavior of LLDPE, neat and blended with PB and SBS, was also studied with dynamic and isothermal differential scanning calorimetry tests, and the isothermal thermograms were analyzed in light of the Avrami equation. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008 |
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Keywords: | blends polyethylene (PE) reactive processing thermal properties |
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