BINARY AND TERNARY PARTICULATE COMPOSITES .1. VISCOELASTIC BEHAVIOR

Dynamic mechanical behaviors of binary and ternary particulate composi tes are investigated to test for the influence of the nature of a poly meric adduct, i.e., maleated styrene ethylene-co-butylene styrene (SEE S) or styrene-co-methacrylic acid (SAMA) copolymers, at the polystyren e (PS)/glass-beads interface on the mechanical coupling and the adhesi on quality between phases. Then, to separate the influence of these tw o causes, a rigorous modeling of the viscoelastic properties of ternar y particulate composites is proposed. Thus, by comparing experimental and theoretical data, it is concluded that the rubbery and rigid adduc ts both induce a change in the magnitude of the mechanical coupling be tween phases. it is shown, however, that the SAMA coupling agent exhib its a better compatibility with the PS matrix than that of maleated SE ES. This could result from the difference in the wt % of styrene segme nts between these two copolymers. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.