Synthesis and mechanical properties of high impact polystyrene with in situ bulk polymerization toughened by one‐pot Nd‐based styrene–isoprene–butadiene terpolymer rubber

High impact polystyrene (HIPS) resins were obtained with in situ bulk polymerization toughened by styrene–isoprene–butadiene terpolymer rubber (SIBR). SIBR prepolymer was prepared through selective polymerization of styrene (St), isoprene (Ip), and butadiene (Bd) in St with Nd]/Al]/Cl] catalyst. Nd‐based catalyst exhibited more favorable activity toward conjugated diene other than St, resulting in St solution of random SIBR with high cis‐1,4 stereoregularity and low St content, which was directly exposed to the free radical polymerization of St to generate HIPS. Effect of toughened rubber and the initiators difunctional (D2) and trifunctional (T3)] were examined to attain HIPS possessing mechanical properties as follow: impact strength, 0.9–24.8 kJ/m²; tensile strength, 16.0–27.5 MPa; and elongation at break, 7.4–107.0%. Increasing SIBR matrix in HIPS improved the impact strength and decreased tensile strength. The fracture surface morphologies of HIPS specimens were studied by notched impact tests and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), illustrating that the incremental SIBR matrix presented synergistic toughening effect of crazing to enhance the ductile fracture behavior. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43979.