The effect of reactive compatibilization of carboxylated polystyrene on morphology and toughness of polyamide-1010/polystyrene blends

The morphology and notched impact behaviour of polyamide-1010/polystyrene ( PA1010/PS) (90/10) blends compatibilized by carboxylated polystyrene (CPS) have been studied. It is found that the addition of CPS has a beneficial ef fect upon the morphology of the resulting blends which leads to a finer dis persion of the PA1010 spherulites and of the PS particles in the PA1010 mat rix. However, with increasing CPS content, the shape of the PS domains appe ars less regular, which may be due to the cracking of the PS spherical doma ins. Infrared analysis was performed to confirm the formation of PS-PA1010 graft copolymer during the blending process. The notched impact toughness o f the compatibilized blends shows a maximum which is almost triple that of the binary blend at approximately 5 wt% of the CPS addition based on the am ount of PS. (C) 1999 Society of Chemical Industry.