Blends of high-density polyethylene with chlorinated polyethylene: Morphology, thermal, rheological, and mechanical properties

Abstract

Blends of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) with chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) were generated using melt mixing. CPE of two different chlorination contents was used and its amount in the blends was varied from 1% till 30%. The rheological, thermal, mechanical, and morphological properties of the blends were characterized along with miscibility analysis. In general, better mixing of the CPE polymer in HDPE was observed at lower CPE concentration and reduced mixing or immiscibility occurred at higher concentration of CPE. However, the extent of immiscibility was different in both CPE25 and CPE35 systems. The rheological analysis of the data using Cole-Cole, Han-Chuang and van Gurp plots confirmed the miscibility of CPE25 blends (except for 30% CPE25 blend at lower frequency) whereas CPE35 blends with 10-30% CPE content were immiscible. Highest increase in the rheological properties (complex moduli) was observed at 2% CPE content. The mechanical properties of the CPE25 blends were superior than the corresponding CPE35 blends especially at higher CPE concentration where effects of immiscibility as well as matrix plasticization played a role. The morphology characterization using TEM indicated change in the crystalline features of the polymer in the case of CPE35 blends. The optical microscopy also confirmed the better mixing of CPE25 polymers in HDPE than CPE35. The CPE25 blends exhibited uniformly dispersed CPE phase which was also confirmed by the rheological analysis. However, the blends of CPE35 with 10% CPE content onwards had significant phase immiscibility. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:85-95, 2014. 10% CPE35, (m) 15% CPE35, (n) 20% CPE35, and (o) 30% CPE35 blends. The width of the images reads 500 lm. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.] FIG. 10. Transmission electron micrographs of (a) 5% CPE25 blend, (b) 5% CPE35 blend, and (c) pure HDPE.

Toughening effect of CPE on ASA/SAN binary blends at different temperatures

“…As reported, CPE has been applied to toughen many different polymers, such as HDPE, 8 PVC, [9][10][11][12] and PMMA. 13 Furthermore, the mechanical properties, rheological properties, morphology, and thermomechanical degradation of CPE/SAN, [14][15][16] CPE/ASA, 17 CPE/PVC/ SAN, 18 and PVC/SAN 19 blends were investigated in the literature, which found a good compatibility and a high toughening efficiency.…”

Processable conductive graphene/polyethylene nanocomposites: Effects of graphene dispersion and polyethylene blending with oxidized polyethylene on rheology and microstructure

“…Introducing functional groups onto the polymer can improve dispersion of the nano-fillers in polyolefins. Maleic anhydride-grafted polyethylene [21], and chlorinated-polyethylene [22,23] were reported as compatibilizers for graphene/polyethylene nanocomposites. However, transmission electron microscopy showed that chlorinated polyethylene did not reduce graphene stacking in the nanocomposites.…”

Interfacial adhesion evaluation in (low‐density polyethylene)/elastomer blends

“…In comparison with conventionally crosslinked elastomers, using thermoplastic elastomers has a number of benefits, e.g., the possibility of preparing them from commercially available plastomers and elastomers; the use of conventional methods of processing and recycling (e.g., extrusion, injection‐molding, grinding, granulation); a beneficial ratio of price to product quality. All of these factors trigger at the present time, as the research and development facilities that work on new polyolefin/elastomer blends enjoy growing interest among science and industry representatives .…”

“…In the last few years, many research works concerning methods of preparation of new types of polyolefin/elastomer blends were published. Ongoing research is focused mainly on the optimization of processing conditions and further compatibilization of polyolefin (polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP)) blends with different elastomers, e.g., ethylene‐propylene‐diene rubber , natural rubber (NR) , styrene‐butadiene rubber (SBR) , ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer , thermoplastic polyurethanes , ethylene‐octene copolymer , chlorosulfonated PE , nitrile rubber , acrylic rubber , styrene‐butadiene‐styrene block copolymer (SBS) , polyisobutylene , and butyl rubber . Moreover, there are also works carried out on compositions of ground tire rubber (GTR) with polyolefins .…”