| Abstract: | PVC/Blendex/Nano‐CaCO3 composites were prepared by melt‐blending method. The Blendex (BLENDEX® 338) (GE Specialty Chemicals Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China) was an acrylonitrile‐butadiene‐styrene copolymer with high butadiene content. The fracture behavior of PVC/Blendex/nano‐CaCO3 composites was studied using a modified essential work of fracture model, U/A = u0 + udl, where u0 is the limiting specific fracture energy and ud is the dissipative energy density. The u0 of PVC/Blendex blend could be greatly increased by the addition of nano‐CaCO3, while the ud was decreased. Nano‐CaCO3 with particle size of 38 nm increased the u0 of PVC/Blendex blend more effectively than that with particle size of 64 nm, when nano‐CaCO3 content was below 10 phr. Both the u0 and ud of PVC/Blendex/nano‐CaCO3 composites were not much affected by increasing specimen thickness from 3 mm to 5 mm, while the two fracture parameters were increased with increasing loading rate from 2 mm/min to 10 mm/min, and ud was found to be more sensitive to the loading rate than u0. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 95: 953–961, 2005 |
