Foaming of Poly(Ethylene Terephthalate) Modified With Tetrafunctional Epoxy

Young

Karayanndis

et al. 2001

In attempts to produce modified poldified polyethlene terephthalate (PET) ressins with improved rheology for applications requiring high viscosity and elasticity (e.g., lowdensity extrusion foaming, extrusion blow molding), a novel dimidodiepoxide of low molecular weight was evaluated aschain extender/branching ageent. Its reactivity was compared with that of an ethylene/glycidy1 methacrylate copolymer. The diepoxide showed higher reactivity than the copolymer and could be used at muchlower concentrations. The complex chain extension/degradation reactions occurring in the melt were followed in a batch mixer by torque changes, and by analyzing the prouducts for residual carboxy1 and hydroxy1 content, intrinsic viscosity, insoluble content and melt viscoelastic properties. The perliminary results of this work indicated an overall decrease in carboxy1 content, increase in hydroxy1 content, increase in intrinsic viscosity ans melt viscosity and storage modulus values depending on mixing time and the type and concentration of the additive. It is shown that under certain conditions. reaction of PET with less than 1 wt% diimidodiepoxide may produce materials with rheological characteristics similar to thouse of PET grades that are extrusion foamable by gas injection to low densities.

Reactive modification of polyethylene terephthalate with polyepoxides

Young

Karayanndis

et al. 2001

Melt viscoelasticity of polyethylene terephthalate resins for low density extrusion foaming

Yilmazer

Dey

et al. 2000

The rheological properties of conventional polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resins are not particularly suitable for low density extrusion foaming with physical blowing agents; as a result, chemically modified resins through chain extension/branching reactions are often used. Such resins have overall higher melt viscosity and higher melt strength/melt “elasticity” than unmodified materials. In this work, following a review of the prior art on PET chemical modification, an unmodified and a chemically modified resin were selected and characterized for their melt viscoelastic properties including shear and dynamic complex viscosity over a broad shear rate/frequency range, storage and loss modulus, and die swell. Certain rheological models were found to provide better fits of the entire viscosity curve for the unmodified vs. the modified resin. Foamed extrudates having variable densities (from about 1.2 to 0.2 g/cc), were prepared by carbon dioxide injection in monolayer flat sheet extrusion equipment. Foams with increasingly lower density, below 0.5 g/cc, were obtained by increasing gas pressure only in the case of the chemically modified resin. The effects of variables such as concentration of the physical blowing agent, resin rheology, resin thermal properties and choice of process conditions are related to product characteristics including density, cell size and crystallinity.

Monitoring the evolution of PET branching through chemorheology

Dhavalikar

2004

There is a high interest in modifying the rheological properties of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) through structural modifications while maintaining its thermoplastic nature. This article reports real‐time spectroscopic and rheological monitoring of the effects of reactive melt modification of PET with a multi‐functional epoxide—triglycidyl isocyanurate (TGIC)—that lead to chain extension/branching and subsequently formation of gel‐like structures. An infrared spectroscopic technique to monitor the simultaneously occurring degradation and chain extension/branching reactions was evaluated. The effects of reaction temperature, shear rate, and residence time were also investigated. Frequency scans at various time intervals on the reacting samples provided information on changes in the degree of branching and melt elasticity. The effect of method of sample preparation for chemorheological testing was also evaluated in this study. A 50% excess of the stoichiometric amount of TGIC for complete reaction with terminal carboxyl groups resulted in a self‐similar polymeric structure of PET near the sol‐gel transition point or a critical gel formation whose linear viscoelastic properties obey scaling law. An estimated fractal dimension from the experimental results was used to quantify the evolution of the branched network structure during the reactive melt modification. Polym. Eng. Sci. 44:474–486, 2004. © 2004 Society of Plastics Engineers.