Rheology of nylon 6 containing metal halides

Addition of metal halides to nylons has been shown to be advantageous in a number of ways. The decrease in melting temperature, increase in glass transition temperature and melt viscosity by such additions have allowed more convenient processing of low molecular weight polymers and thermally unstable polymers. Rheological data depicting the variation of melt viscosity with shear rate at temperatures relevant to processing are necessary in optimizing and trouble-shooting plastics processing operations. In the present paper, a method has been proposed to estimate, complete flow curves or rheograms of nylon—metal halide systems with the use of a master curve knowing the melt flow index and glass transition temperature of the system. The validity of the approach has been verified for the nylon 6—lithium chloride system and shown to hold good for any nylon—metal halide combination.