JOURNAL OF POLYMER ENGINEERING

 Vol. 23, No. 1, 2003, page 23

REACTIVE BLENDING OF POLY(ETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE) AND IONOMERS: 1. THE INFLUENCE OF PROCESSING CONDITIONS

Elen V. Pacheco and Marcos L. Dias*

 Instituto de Macromoléculas Professora Eloisa Mano

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Cidade Universitária, Centro de Tecnologia

21.945-970 Rio de Janeiro, RJ

e-mail: elen@ima.ufrj.br, mldias@ima.ufrj.br

 ABSTRACT

                 The reactive blending in the melt state of poly(ethylene terephthalate) and ethylene-methacrylic acid copolymers, in the acid form or partially neutralized by sodium and zinc, was investigated using a torque rheometer. A significant increase in the torque takes place during processing at temperatures above 250^oC due to the formation of high molecular weight species due to grafting and crosslinking. Torque curves presented multimodal peaks ascribed to different types of reactions. Torque profile was highly influenced by composition, temperature and presence of humidity. Moisture in the blend components and increase of temperature accelerate the reactions, increasing the torque values, mainly in case of sodium ionomer blends. All the blends with a high percentage of ionomer presented the highest torque values. In blends, the maximum torque peak is reached in smaller processing time.

P.O. Box 35010, Tel Aviv, Israel, 61350. Tel: 972-3- 562-8540; Fax: 972-3-562-8538

E-mail: h_freund@netvision.net.il; website: https://www.freundpublishing.com