Preparation of Poly(ethylene terephthalate)-graft-polystyrene Copolymer

Abstract

Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) has attracted interest in synthetic fiber and packaging materials. Some disadvantages have limited the application of PET as plastic, such as slow crystallization rate, rough surface, long molding cycle, poor impact strength and processing performance. Blending of PET with PA6 is an attractive method for producing new material with desirable properties. However, when PET blends with PA6, the ester-amide exchange reaction would occur. The result of the reaction would lead to rearrangement of molecular, thus affect the morphology and properties of the blends. Although ester-amide exchange reaction can improve the compatibility of polymer blends, it can also worsen the performance of the blend because of an excess of ester interchange reaction 1. Therefore, the ester-amide exchange reaction of PET/PA6 blend should be inhibited to obtain suitable properties of the blend. The graft copolymerization of proper polymer onto PET and PA6 is an effective method to control the ester-amide exchange reaction. In this article, PET-g-PS was prepared by grafted method at melt blending state. The free radical initiated on the skeleton of the polymer matrix is important for the reaction of graft copolymerization. Many studies about radiation-induced grafting on PET have