High vinyl polybutadiene rubber/polypropylene thermoplastic elastomer blends: Optimization of internal mixing process parameters and screening of processing methods

Abstract

Thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV) composed of high vinyl polybutadiene rubber (HVPB) and polypropylene (PP) have good thermal stability and damping properties. This work aims to apply a design of experiments (Taguchi L9 orthogonal array) to optimize the mixing parameters (rotor speed, temperature, and time) for the HVPB/PP TPV. The effects of these mixing parameters on its physical and mechanical properties of HVPB/PP TPV follow the order: rotor speed > temperature and time. In the case of the master batch process, the optimum mixing parameters are 60 rpm, 180°C and 8 min. Subsequently, four processes (master batch, static vulcanization, rubber‐plastic premixing, and two‐step processing) are compared using the same optimum mixing parameters. The master batch process turns out to be the best in terms of physical and mechanical properties.