In this study, the morphological, rheological, and mechanical properties of PP/HDPE blend compatibilized with poly (propylene-g-maleic anhydride) were studied. Necessary blends were prepared using a counter current twin-screw extruder. The blend composition ranged from 10 to 50 wt% of dispersed phase (HDPE) and compatibilizer (MAPP) with two Concentration ranges 10, 20 wt% were used for PP/HDPE (80/20) blend with respect to the dispersed phase (HDPE). The results of morphological studies shows a droplet dispersion morphology in the composition to 50wt% HDPE content, which indicates that HDPE forms a dispersed phase and PP forms a continuous phase in these composition region. Addition of the MAPP compatibilizer decreases the dispersed phase diameter. Rheological studies show that addition of the MAPP compatibilizer increases the melt viscosity, complex viscosity, storage, and loss modulus of the blends. Mechanical studies show that with increasing of HDPE concentration the tensile and impact strength first increase, and then decrease. The elongation at break decreases with increasing of HDPE concentration. Addition of the MAPP compatibilizer increases the elongation at break, tensile, and impact strength.

The newly hydrophobically modified associating acrylamide‐based copolymers were prepared by the inverse miniemulsion polymerization method in order to investigate the copolymers rheological and associating properties in water and brine solutions. Dimethyldodecane (2‐acrylamidopropyl) ammonium bromide (DDPAB) was synthesized and used as a hydrophobic monomer and was later copolymerized with acrylamide in the presence of poly(acrylic acid‐co‐maleic acid) and various molecular weights of poly(acrylic acid) as templates. The chemical compositions and functional groups of the resulting hydrophobic monomer and copolymers were characterized using the 1H nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier transform‐infrared spectroscopy. According to the studies on the solutions viscosity behavior, incorporation of small amount of hydrophobic monomer improved the thickening properties due to the intermolecular hydrophobic association. The apparent viscosity of the copolymers with a template was much greater than those prepared without a template. The molecular weight of the template strongly influenced the thickening behaviors of the copolymers. A template copolymer with 1 mol % of a hydrophobic monomer was the one most efficient. The addition of electrolyte saline improved the polarization of the solutions and enhanced the thickening ability. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43588.

This paper has described a method to obtain the molecular weight distribution (MWD) of polymeric materials from their rheological data. The method has been developed for linear polymers with log normal molecular weight distribution. The rheological data required to obtain the molecular weight distribution are the shear storage modulus,G' (ω) , and shear loss modulus,G" (ω) , extending from the terminal zone to the plateau region. For determining the molecular weight average, the method uses the relationship between stress moduli and relaxation spectrums, with the equation that connects dynamic rheological data with molecular weight distribution, and so it is not necessary to achieve the relaxation spectrums and the molecular weight distribution is obtained directly from dynamic shear experiments and it is one of the main advantageous of the proposed method. Comparison of calculated and experimental data obtained by GPC for five polypropylene samples produced in different conditions show that model can correctly predict molecular weight distribution for these types of polymers.