Blends of polyamide 6 and epichlorohydrin elastomers. I. Graft copolymerization in the melt blending

✍ Scribed by Silvia Carla Goós Da Costa; Maria Do Carmo Gonçalves; Maria Isabel Felisberti

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 256 KB
• Volume: 72
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(19990628)72:14<1827::aid-app4>3.0.co;2-h

✦ Synopsis

With the purpose of improving the mechanical properties of the polyamides, the possibility of combining polyamides with elastomers has been used. The low compatibility of the resulting blends leads to deficient mechanical properties, and therefore, it is necessary to add the compatibilizer to the mixture or to produce the compatibilizer during the melting mixture. Usually, at least one of the components must contain a reactive functional groups. In the present work, blends of polyamide 6 (PA 6) and epichlorohydrin elastomers, polyepichlorohydrin (PEPI), and the equimolar copolymer poly(epichlorohydrin-co-ethylene oxide), ECO, with different compositions were prepared by mechanical mixture using a Banbury-type mixer. The blends were characterized by rheological measurements, the Molau test, elemental analysis, Infrared Spectroscopy by Diffuse Reflectance, Transmission Electron Microscopy, and X-ray Diffractometry. The blends of PA 6 with PEPI and ECO are heterogeneous, showing a morphology of elastomer particles dispersed in the polyamide matrix. The results of rheological measurements and the Molau test indicate a graft copolymerization in the interface between the polyamide and the elastomer, PA 6-g-elastomer, whose concentration decreases with the elastomer content. It was found that the grafting of PEPI and PA 6 changed the diffraction pattern of PA 6.