A study on compatibilization of AES/PA6 blends

Polyblends of Nylon 6 and AES were prepared and their mechanical properties and phase morphology examined. Two compatibilization techniques were evaluated: addition of a suitable block copolymer: poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) (SMA); AES functionalization with maleic anhydride (MA) through reactive extrusion. As a preliminary test for the compatibilizing efficiency, SMAs and PA6 were compounded in a Brabender mixer, recording the torque during the operations and evaluating, by solvent extraction, the amount of SMA grafted to PA6. However, when moving to the ternary blends AES/SMA/PA6, the highest value of notched lzod impact strength (290 J m^–1 versus 20 J m^–1) was found for an SMA sample containing 24% MA, which did not show the highest reactivity with PA6 in the preliminary test run. This finding suggests that not only the reactivity towards PA6, but also the miscibility with AES phase (the highest for the SMA product with 24% MA) must be taken into account when designing the best performing compatibilizer. On the other hand, AES functionalization with MA and DCP proved to be more successful and the resulting 50/50 blend with PA6 exhibited an outstanding value of notched Izod impact strength (1050 J m^–1)