| Abstract: | A systematic dielectric and mechanical study was carried out on an ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) and a nitrile rubber (NBR) blended with polyacrylamide (PAM). From the compatibility investigations, it was found that EPDM/PAM is incompatible while NBR/PAM is semicompatible. To overcome the problem of phase separation between rubber and PAM, PAM was grafted with two different monomers, acrylonitrile (AN) and acrylic acid (AA), and added with 10 phr to both EPDM and NBR. Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) was also added as a compatiblizing agent to both types of blend. It was concluded that the addition of either a grafted polymer or PVC to the rubber–plastic blend could improve to some extent the compatibility of such blends. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 70: 2053–2059, 1998 |
