Thermal oxidation‐induced long chain branching and its effect on phase separation kinetics of a polyethylene blend

Thermal oxidation‐induced long chain branching (LCB) during the molding processes for polyolefin copolymer poly(ethylene‐co‐butene) (PEB) and its blend with another polyolefin copolymer poly(ethylene‐co‐hexene) (PEH/PEB 50/50 blend, denoted as H50) was investigated mainly by rheological measurements. LCB with different levels could be introduced on PEB backbones by changing the molding temperature and/or molding time, which could be sensitively characterized by changes of rheological parameters, that is, storage modulus G′ and complex viscosity η*. Thermal oxidation‐induced LCB of PEB in H50 samples could largely influence the phase separation kinetics. Rheological measurements and phase‐contrast optical microscope observations coherently indicated that thermal oxidation‐induced LCB of PEB more or less retarded the development of phase separation and once it reached a certain level, the reduced chain diffusion even arrested phase separation. The decrease of mass‐averaged molecular mass in H50 with high LCB level was ascribed to the reduced hydrodynamic volume. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011