PROCESSABILITY AND PROPERTIES OF NOVEL GLASS-POLYMER MELT BLENDS

Dynamic mechanical analysis was used to study the viscoelastic propert ies of two novel highly filled phosphate glass-polymer melt blends to accelerate efforts to optimize their melt processing. The melt of one blend was thermally stable while that of the other blend was not, as e videnced by modulus growth over time of the latter. The frequency depe ndencies of storage and loss moduli for both blends at 400 degrees C s howed evidence of incomplete relaxation. Recrystallization, formation of some fibrillar structures within the polymer phase during flow, tra nsesterification of the polymer phase, or interactions between the pol ymer and glass are thought to be responsible for the observed differen ces between the viscoelastic properties of the two blends.