High performance structured polymer barrier films obtained from compatibilized polypropylene/ethylene vinyl alcohol blends

Abstract

The effects of different functionalized polypropylene (PP) and diethyl maleate (DEM) combined with styrene–ethylene–butene–styrene copolymer (SEBS) on various properties of extruded‐stretched films of polypropylene/ethylene vinyl alcohol (PP/EVOH) blends were studied. The stretched films of the original PP/EVOH blends and those of the polymer‐g‐DEM modified blends showed lamellar‐type morphology, whereas their maleic anhydride (MAH) functionalized counterparts showed fibrillar morphology. Such peculiar morphology resulted in a dramatic decrease of oxygen permeability as compared with the unmodified or MAH modified PP/EVOH blends. These spectacular improvements in barrier properties were obtained without much altering thermal and mechanical properties of the blend. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 47:1114–1121, 2007. © 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers

Compatibilization of PP/PAE blends by means of the addition of an ionomer

“…Poly(amino ether) (PAE) resins are a group of thermoplastics characterized by a very favorable barrier behavior, high adhesion to different substrates, optical quality, low color, and mechanical toughness [6], rendering them especially suitable for the packaging industry. Other resins with hydroxyl groups, such as poly(ethylene‐ co ‐vinyl alcohol) (EVOH) copolymers or poly(vinyl alcohol), also show a large barrier resistance and have been combined with polyolefins to obtain multilayer structures [7–9] or blends [4, 7, 10–16].…”

“…Thus, glycidyl methacrylate‐grafted PP (PP‐ g ‐GMA) has been used as a compatibilizer for mixtures of PP with both polyesters [17–20] and organoclays [21]. Maleic anhydride‐grafted PP (PP‐ g ‐MA) has been used in mixtures of PP with polyamides [22–25], epoxy [26–28], EVOH [7, 15, 29], and organoclays [21, 30–33], among others. In the last decade, ionomers have been successfully used to compatibilize immiscible polymer blends [12, 13, 34–47] as well as to improve the dispersion of the organically modified montmorillonite clay in polyesters [48, 49].…”

Investigation of polyethylene‐grafted‐maleic anhydride presence as a compatibilizer on various properties of nanocomposite films based on polyethylene/ethylene vinyl alcohol/ nanoclay

“…Extensive studies have been conducted for the production of multilayer packaging films based on PE and EVOH . This process is quite expensive, and recycling of final product is difficult; also the clarity of final product could not be maintained . Compounding is proposed as a possible alternative to eliminate such difficulties.…”

“…[18,19] This process is quite expensive, and recycling of final product is difficult; also the clarity of final product could not be maintained. [20] Compounding is proposed as a possible alternative to eliminate such difficulties. Compounding is a cost-effective method to utilize different properties of two or more polymer simultaneously with the advantage of easy recycling.…”

Estudo do comportamento reológico da mistura polimérica PMMA/PS compatibilizada ou não.

“…Devido às dificuldades inerentes ao regime não linear, o estudo da viscoelasticidade não linear em misturas poliméricas é assunto de muitos estudos teóricos [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] e experimentais [33][34][35][36][37][38][39] . Os resultados experimentais obtidos até o presente momento ainda são muito conflitantes e poucos estudos foram realizados em sistemas compatibilizados [21,[36][37][38][39][40] .…”