Structure and Properties of Maleated Linear Low‐Density Polyethylene and Cellulose Acetate Butyrate Blends

Abstract

Summary: Blends of M‐LLDPE and CAB were prepared in an internal laboratory mixer with 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 wt.‐% of CAB. Structure and properties of the blends were studied by means of tensile tests, DSC, SEM, extraction with a selective solvent, Raman spectroscopy and XRD. Blends prepared with 5 and 10 wt.‐% of CAB displayed the best mechanical properties. SEM and extraction with a selective solvent followed by Raman spectroscopy showed good interfacial adhesion between CAB and M‐LLDPE. No significant change on the melting temperatures (Tm) of the M‐LLDPE/CAB blends could be observed when compared with the Tm obtained for pure M‐LLDPE. XRD demonstrated that the addition of CAB has no influence on the lattice constants of M‐LLDPE, but the introduction of CAB increased the amorphous region, confirming that the miscibility occurs on the amorphous region of the polyethylene.SEM image of the cryofracture surface of CAB‐20%.imageSEM image of the cryofracture surface of CAB‐20%.

Structure and properties of composites of polyethylene or maleated polyethylene and cellulose or cellulose esters

“…where A a and A c correspond to the areas calculated for the amorphous and crystalline region. 25,35 The DC value found for PE and M-PE samples is 54% (Table IV). After PE is mixed with CEL, CA, CAP, and CAB, the DC values decrease to 46, 52, 51, and 51%, respectively.…”

“…2(b)] are lower than those obtained for PE and M-PE, corroborating previous results. 25 In comparison with pure PE, a dramatic loss in elongation (e b ) was observed for all samples [Fig. 2(c)].…”

“…In this work, the polysaccharide concentration was set to 20 wt %, which is usual for composites. Recently, 25 we have shown that the addition of 5 or 10 wt % CAB to M-PE leads to materials with tensile properties superior to those obtained for PE or M-PE. However, mixtures with CAB concentrations between 20 and 40 wt % showed tensile behavior comparable to that observed for PE or M-PE.…”

“…Zhang et al 15 recently argued that fillers with low crystallinity favor compatibility in composites, and this can explain the superior mechanical properties of the systems with CAP and CAB, which are less crystal- (Table IV) correspond to the (110) and (200) diffraction planes, respectively. 11,12,25,33,34 The interplanar spacing (d hkl ) has been determined with Bragg's equation:…”

Morphology and improved impact strength of cellulose acetate butyrate blended with polyethylene copolymer

“…The addition of CAB to polylactic acid (PLA) strongly decreased PLA crystallization even at low CAB loading, 0.5-1 wt%, keeping crystallization mechanism the same [21]. As far as CAB blends with polyolefins and also some polyesters are concerned, most of them show phase separated morphology [22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. The immiscibility of components was used to make blends in which CAB is in continuous phase and polyolefin or polyester fillers (high density polyethylene (HDPE), isotactic polypropylene (iPP), poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT), poly(butylenes terephthalate), and poly(ethylene terephthalate-co-isophthalate)-poly(ethylene glycol)) are in spherical, fibrillar, and lamellar morphology [22][23][24][25][26].…”