Morphology,rheological and mechanical properties of poly(phenylene ether) and polyamide-6 blends with a compatibilizer

Summary The compatibilizing effect of styrene-acrylic acid random copolymers (SAA) on the morphology, rheological and mechanical properties of poly(phenylene ether) (PPE) and polyamide-6 (PA6) blends was investigated. By addition of a small amount (ca. 3wt%) of SAA copolymer, the blends show non-Newtonian power-law behavior at low frequency and the contribution of the storage modulus (G) to the total response increases. The blends containing SAA copolymer having acrylic acid content higher than 36mol% show more regular and finer dispersion and exhibit about 10% increased mechanical properties. It is believed from Molau test and MFI data that these results seem to attribute to the branch formation and MWD broadening by chemical reaction between terminal amine groups of PA6 and carboxyl groups of SAA.