DETERMINATION OF INTERFACIAL-TENSION BETWEEN PA PP AND LCP/PP BY IFR METHOD AND EFFECT OF COMPATIBILIZATION ON INTERFACIAL-TENSION/

The dynamic imbedded fiber retraction (IFR) method was used to measure the interfacial tension between two molten polymers. The aim was to e valuate the applicability of this method for polypropylene (PP) used a s matrix, and two polyamide (PA6, PA66) and thermotropic main-chain li quid crystalline polymer fibers. The effect on the interfacial propert ies of modifying the PP matrix with compatibilizers was studied as wel l. The IFR method was found to be suitable for evaluating the interfac ial properties of these polymer blends. The measured interfacial tensi ons correlated well with the morphology and mechanical properties of t he blends and values calculated from the harmonic mean equation. Altho ugh the measured interfacial tensions were generally lower than the th eoretical ones, the order of the values for the different polymer pair s was similar. (C) 1995 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.