A major stream of post-consumer plastics is a commingled blend of polyethylenes and polypropylenes, which usually exhibits lower performance compared with that of the homopolymers due to the incompatible nature of polyethylenes and polypropylenes. Various studies have been carried out to characterize the structure, morphology, mechanical, thermal, and rheological behavior of this blend. The effect of processing, modification, and compatibilization have also been studied by various workers. This article is a review of the work done on polyethylene-polypropylene blends to help in the understanding of this important blend. ost-consumer plastics waste has become the P focus of legislation and environmental concerns.I3 The major polymeric components of these plastics waste streams are polyethylenes, polypropylenes, styrenics, polyvinyl chlorides, and polyethylene terephthalates. Separation of the plastics * To whom correspondence should be addressed.waste into an individual single polymeric type by various methods is costly and complete sorting is economically nonviable and sometimes impossible. Hence in the field of plastics recycling, we are usually faced with a recycled product of a commingled mixture. Due to the incompatible nature of most polymer^,^,^ the commingled polymeric mixtures are poor in their mechanical performance, aging behavior, and resistance toward thermal and chemical environment. In the case of recycling of polyolefins, a commingled blend of polyethylenes (consisting of linear low, low, and
Mixtures of film grade LLDPE, LDPE, and PP may occur in recycle streams. Household plastic films collected through a recycling program were found to contain less than 2 per cent PR The present study concerns the effects of minor amounts of polypropylene on the film properties of such mixtures. Polypropylene enhances film stiffness slightly and has no deleterious effect on other PE film properties at levels up to 5 per cent PP However, considerable degradation of tear and impact strength occurs with higher polypropylene concentrations. These problems are alleviated by addition of a vinyl acetate EVA film grade polymer of 28% VA content, which will permit PP levels approaching 20 per cent without negative impact on film properties. Good properties were observed in 85/15 LLDPE/PP mixtures by addition of 5 per cent of this EVA, based on the total polyolefin content. This report gives a detailed description of the mechanical properties of the extruded films.
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