Polymer blends of polyamide-6 (PA6) and poly(phenylene ether) (PPE) compatibilized by a multifunctional epoxy coupler

✍ Scribed by Chih-Rong Chiang; Feng-Chih Chang

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 519 KB
• Volume: 36
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-6266
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0488(199808)36:11<1805::aid-polb2>3.0.co;2-p

✦ Synopsis

A tetrafunctional epoxy monomer, N,N,N -N-tetraglycidyl-4,4 -diaminodiphenyl methane (TGDDM), has demonstrated to be a highly efficient reactive compatibilizer in compatibilizing the immiscible and incompatible polymer blends of polyamide-6 (PA6) and poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether) (PPE). This epoxy coupler can react with both PA6 and PPE to form various PA6-co-TGDDM-co-PPE mixed copolymers. These interfacially formed PA6-co-TGDDM-co-PPE copolymers tend to anchor along the interface to reduce the interfacial tension and result in finer phase domains and enhanced interfacial adhesion. A simple one-step melt blending has demonstrated to be more efficient in producing a better compatibilized PA6/PPE blend than a twostep sequential blending. The mechanical property improvement of the compatibilized blend over the uncompatibilized counterpart is very drastic, by considering the addition of a very small amount, a few fractions of 1%, of this epoxy coupling agent.