Fractal analysis of morphology of PE/PA blends: Composition

Abstract

Composition effect on the phase morphology in polyethylene (PE) with polyamide (PA) blends was investigated by pattern analysis of scanning electron micrographs. The average diameter denoted as d g is defined to discuss the morphology of the blends and further, different fractal dimensions, D M and D N , were introduced to characterize the phase morphology. Scale function S N (r) and S M (r) are defined to study the selfsimilarity of the phase morphology. The plots of S N (r)/S N (r)m (the maximum of S N (r)) versus r/rm (the maximum of r) and S M (r)/ S M (r)m (the maximum of S M (r)) versus r/rm showed the selfsimilar formation of the phase pattern. Furthermore, we calculated the fractal dimension D of different PE/PA blends. The results showed that the fractal dimension was an effective parameter to describe the spacial distribution of dispersed particles.

Crystallization and Performance of Polyamide Blends Comprising Polyamide 4, Polyamide 6, and Their Copolymers

“…Blending is a convenient, effective, and low-cost method for improving the processability of polymeric materials and enhancing their properties [ 7 ]. Several PA blends have been reported, such as those with polypropylene [ 8 ], polyethylene [ 9 ], polyethylene terephthalate [ 10 ], polylactic acid [ 11 ], acrylonitrile butadiene styrene [ 12 ], and two types of PA [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Although most of these blends are immiscible, PA/PA blends are miscible.…”