Rheological, mechanical and morphological properties of poly(methyl methacrylate)/poly(ethylene terephthalate) blend with dual reactive interfacial compatibilization

Abstract

Abstract In this work, the rheological, mechanical and morphological behavior of immiscible blend poly (methyl methacrylate) with elastomeric particles (PMMAelast) and post-consumer poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) with and without the use of the interfacial compatibilizer poly (methyl methacrylate-co-glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethyl acrylate) (MGE) was studied. The significant increase in torque presented in rheological analyses has shown a indication of chemical reactions between the epoxy group of MGE with end groups of PET chains and also with the elastomeric phase of PMMAelast. The increased concentration of PET yielded an increase in maximum strength and elasticity modulus and a decrease in elongation at break. The PMMAelast/PET binary blend (50/50 wt%) and PMMAelast/PET/MGE compatibilized blend (65/30/5 wt%) showed pronounced results in elongation at break compared to PMMAelast, whereas, in the first results were due to the evidence of a co-continuous morphological structure and in the second, due to the efficiency of the dual reactive interfacial compatibilization of PMMAelast/PET blends. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses showed that PMMAelast/PET/MGE blends exhibit complex phase morphology due to the presence of elastomeric particles in the PMMAelast copolymer and in the use of MGE terpolymer.

Keywords

• PMMA copolymer
• post-consumer PET
• morphology
• reactive extrusion