VISCOELASTIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL-STUDY OF POLYAMIDE-6 POLYETHYLENE/SEBS-G-DEM TERNARY BLENDS/

The viscoelastic and morphological properties of ternary reactive blen ds of different low and linear low density polyethylenes, polyamide-6 and functionalized SEES were studied. The SEES was functionalized via reactive extrusion using diethylmaleate as the functionalizing monomer . Even though the grafting degree achieved was very low (about 0.040 w t%) due to the high melt viscosity of the SEES, a lower particle size and no coalescence of the dispersed phase were obtained when SEBS-g-DE M was added to the blends and when the polyamide was the dispersed pha se. There was no change in the dispersed phase size when the SEBS-g-DE M was used between 3 to 5%. However, when 10% was added, there was an increase in the volume average diameter due to the excess of emulsifie r agent that builds up an additional dispersed phase. In addition to t he viscosity ratio, the influence of the elasticity on the dispersed p hase size is important and should be considered. When LLDPE and LDPE2 with similar viscosity curves were used as minor components, a finer d ispersed phase was obtained with LLDPE which showed lower G' values.