Dynamic vulcanization was successfully applied to epoxy resin reinforced polypropylene (PP)/ethylene-octene copolymer (POE) blends, and the effects of different compatibilizers on the morphology and properties of dynamically cured PP/POE/epoxy blends were studied. The results show that dynamically cured PP/ POE/epoxy blends compatibilized with maleic anhydridegrafted polypropylene (MAH-g-PP) have a three-phase structure consisting of POE and epoxy particles dispersed in the PP continuous phase, and these blends had improved tensile strength and flexural modulus. While using maleic anhydride-grafted POE (MAH-g-POE) as a compatibilizer, the structure of the core-shell complex phase and the PP continuous phase showed that epoxy particles could be embedded in MAH-g-POE in the blends, and gave rise to an increase in impact strength, while retaining a certain strength and modulus. DSC analysis showed that the epoxy particles in the blends compatibilized with MAH-g-PP were more efficient nucleating agents for PP than they were in the blends compatibilized with MAH-g-POE. WAXD analysis shows that compatibilization do not disturb the crystalline structure of PP in the blends.
A new method concerning the simultaneous reinforcing and toughening of polypropylene (PP) is reported. Dynamic cure of the epoxy resin with 2-ethylene-4-methane-imidazole was successfully applied in the PP/maleic anhydride grafted styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene (MAH-g-SEBS) triblock co-polymer, and the obtained blends were named as dynamically cured PP/MAH-g-SEBS/epoxy blends. The stiffness and toughness of the blends are in a good balance, and the smaller size of the epoxy particle in the PP/MAH-g-SEBS/epoxy blends shows that MAH-g-SEBS was also used as a compatibiliser. The structure of the dynamically cured PP/MAH-g-SEBS/epoxy blends is the embedding of the epoxy particles by MAH-g-SEBS. The cured epoxy particles as organic filler increase the stiffness of the PP/MAH-g-SEBS blends, and the improvement in the toughness is attributed to the embedded structure. The tensile strength and flexural modulus of the blends increase with increasing epoxy resin content, and the impact strength reaches a maximum of 342 J m 21 at the epoxy resin content of 10 wt-%. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis shows that the epoxy particles in the dynamically cured PP/MAH-g-SEBS/epoxy blends could have contained embedded MAH-g-SEBS, decreasing the nucleating effect of the epoxy resin. Wide angle X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the dynamical cure and compatibilisation do not disturb the crystalline structure of PP in the blends.
In this study, an epoxy resin was dynamically cured in a polypropylene (PP)/maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene (MAH-g-PP)/calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) matrix to prepare dynamically cured PP/MAH-g-PP/CaCO 3 /epoxy composites. The torque measurement shows that the addition of epoxy resin into the PP/MAH-g-PP/CaCO 3 composites results in a slight increase in the torque at equilibrium, and epoxy resin in the composites has been cured by 2-ethylene-4-methane-imidazole (EMI-2,4). Scanning electron microscopic analysis shows that dual compatibilizers composed of MAH-g-PP and an epoxy resin were demonstrated to effectively compatibilize the immiscible PP/CaCO 3 composites. MAH-g-PP with a low MAH content is miscible with PP to make it quasifunctionalized, while the epoxy resin can react with MAH-g-PP and hydroxyl groups at the CaCO 3 surface. Thus the formed MAH-g-PP-co-epoxy-co-CaCO 3 copolymer at the interface is able to anchor along the interface and serve as an efficient compatibilizer. Dynamic cure of the epoxy resin can further increase the interaction adhesion in the PP/CaCO 3 composites. The epoxy resin does not show compatibilization effects for the PP/CaCO 3 composites without the presence of MAH-g-PP. The shift of crystallization peaks to the higher temperature suggests that the CaCO 3 filler in the composites can
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