| Abstract: | An ethylene-propylene copolymer (EPR) has been functionalized with dibutyl maleate (DBM) by means of a radical-initiated bulk process. Different degrees of grafting have been obtained by varying the overall composition of the reaction mixture as well as the processing procedures. The influence of the grafting degree on the structural and superreticular (or “long range”) order has been investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared analysis (FTIR), and wide (WAXS) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) techniques. The functionalization leads to a decrease of the “residual crystallinity” present in the parent copolymer. Linear relationships between the grafting degree and the crystallinity degree Xc evaluated by both DSC and WAXS have been obtained. The results of the structural investigations, in agreement with previously reported ones, suggest that the grafting preferentially occurs onto the longer or more perfect methylene sequences. SAXS investigations showed that the significant degree of structuration, i.e., crystalline and paracrystalline order, present in the parent elastomer, gradually disappears by increasing the degree of grafting. |
