Effects of temperature and load on the melt index of LDPE/LLDPE blends of different blend ratios

✍ Scribed by A. C. -Y. Wong; A. D. E. Sy

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 741 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-2461
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00356704

✦ Synopsis

The temperature, load and blend ratio effects on the melt index of low density polyethylene (LDPE)/linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) blends were studied. The experimental results suggested that the correlation between overall melt index and blend ratio of LDPE/LLDPE blends was governed by a log-linear relationship. This relationship, in turn, offered a simple method for the estimation of the melt index of LDPE/LLDPE blends with minimum experimental work. The results of the temperature effect indicated that if blending was for improving processability, the sensitivity of the melt index of LDPE should then be less than that of LLDPE; whereas, the reverse sensitivity of melt index to temperature was for improving properties of end products. It was shown that melt index increased with increasing applied load. The compressibility characteristics of the polymer melt was thought to account for the susceptibility of melt index to the applied load. Two distinct melting peaks were obtained from the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermograms. This suggested that compatibility was not responsible for the effects shown by the factors studied in this work.