Polymer Engineering and Science, Vol.49, No.9, 1767-1771, 2009
Improved Melting Strength of Polypropylene by Reactive Compounding With Ultrafine Full-Vulcanized Polybutadiene Rubber (UFBR) Particles
Ultrafine full-vulcanized polybutadiene rubber (UFBR) in particle sizes of ca. 50-100 nm has been used for modifying mechanical and processing performances of polypropylene (PP), and PP-g-maleic anhydride (PP-MA) has been used as a compatibilizer for enhancing the interfacial adhesion between the two components. The results show that PP/UFBR possesses rheological behaviors such as highly branched PP when UFBR content in blends reaches 10 wt%, while in contrast, the much low content of UFBR combining small amount of PP-MA endows the material with rheological characteristics of high melt strength materials like highly branched PP. The mechanism accounting for the rheological behaviors of binary blends and effectiveness of PP-MA on PP/UFBR blends has been proposed. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 49:1767-1771, 2009. (C) 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers