Influence of Composition and Processing History on the Cellular Morphology of the Foamed Olefinic Thermoplastic Elastomers

Abstract

Abstract Foam extrusion of a series of dynamically vulcanized polypropylene (PP)/ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer (EPDM) blends (commercially available Santoprene) by using chemical blowing agents have been studied. Results suggest that foaming occurs only within the thermoplastic phase and for each composition there exists a limiting density which controls the maximum volume expansion. This limiting density is controlled only by the composition and is independent of the blowing agent concentration, extrusion conditions, and the geometry. For the softest and the hardest blends, maximum volume expansion was found to be about 20 and 100%, respectively. Considerable differences in cell structure were also observed with change in the blend composition. As the rubber content increases, bubbles change their shapes from spherical to highly elongated channels where long axes are primarily along the extrusion direction. When the shapes of the bubbles are viewed by cutting the specimen, the bubbles were found to become highly irregular as the rubber content was increased. The fractal dimension of the perimeter profiles revealed that increases in rubber content give increases in the characteristic fractal dimension. Additionally, wide angle x-ray pole figure analysis, which gives an average orientation behavior of the material, indicates that low levels of preferential crystalline chain orientation develop in the extradates. This preferential orientation was found to vary from skin to core.