A Study of Compatibilization Effect on Physical Properties of Poly (Butylene Succinate) and High Density Polyethylene Blend

Abstract

The aim of this research is to improve compatibility of PBS/HDPE blend using HDPE-g-MAH as a compatibilizer. The effect of HDPE-g-MAH content on mechanical and thermal properties, and degree of crystallinity of PBS/HDPE/HDPE-g-MAH blend was investigated. The blends were prepared at PBS/HDPE weight ratio of 30/70 and HDPE-g-MAH was used at a content of 2, 4, 6 and 8 part per hundred of PBS and HDPE. The results showed that yield strength and stress at break of PBS/HDPE/HDPE-g-MAH blends insignificantly increased with adding HDPE-g-MAH more than 2 phr. In addition, addition of HDPE-g-MAH to the binary blends led to an increase of elongation at break while Young’s modulus of blends exhibited an insignificant change. The addition of HDPE-g-MAH into PBS/HDPE blend did not affect both flexural modulus and flexural strength. In addition, unnotched impact strength of the blends greatly increased with increasing HDPE-g-MAH content and PBS/HDPE blend containing 8 phr of HDPE-g-MAH were not fractured within the instrument limit. For thermal properties, the presence of HDPE-g-MAH did not affect degradation temperature of PBS domain and HDPE matrix. HDPE-g-MAH of 8 phr markedly influenced the degree of crystallinity of the PBS and HDPE.