ABSTRACT:New liquid crystalline materials with low processing temperature, whilst maintaining the mechanical properties characteristic of the liquid crystalline polymers, were sought by blending Rodrun 5000 and Rodrun 3000. After direct injection moulding, the solid blends appeared as miscible. The crystallization from the melt was hindered by the presence of the other component, but the minimum processing temperature of Rodrun 5000 clearly decreased as a consequence of the presence of Rodrun 3000. This decrease was not at the cost of a decrease in the overall mechanical properties. It should be noted that, unlike in thermoplastics blends, in liquid crystal polymer (LCP) blends the miscibility level influences the modulus values. Immiscibility leads to clear positive synergisms in the values of the modulus of elasticity and also in the tensile strength, that are not seen in miscible LCP blends.KEY WORDS Rodrun Liquid Crystalline 5000 I Rodrun Liquid Crystalline 3000 I Blends I Structure I Processability I Mechanical Properties IThe use of liquid crystal polymers (LCP's) as reinforcements for thermoplastic matrices has attracted considerable interest in the two last decades. 1 · 2 This is due to the fact that when thermoplastic!LCP blends are subjected to extensional flow, the LCP phase is deformed into fibrils that reinforce the matrix. A clear limitation of thermoplastic!LCP blends is that most of the commercial and performance LCP's have to be processed at temperatures close to 300'C. For this reason, most LCP's can be only blended with heat resistant thermoplastics. A possible solution to this problem is the reduction of the processing temperature of the LCP's by blending with another LCP with a lower processing temperature. This aspect has not been studied much; 3 · 4 in LCPILCP blends, the structure, 3 · 5 -15 rheological properties, 3 · 4 · 6 · 9 -11 • 16 morphology, 6 mechanical properties 4 -6 · 9 · 13 · 17 -20 and reactions in the melt state 3 · 7 · 8 • 13 are the subjects of most study.Apart from a possible reduction of the processing temperature, two additional important advantages are usually found in LCPILCP blends: a synergistic mechanical behavior 5 · 6 · 9 · 13 · 17 · 19 · 20 and a melt viscosity lower than that of either of the pure components. 9 -11 These possibilities make LCPILCP blends clearly attractive.Rodrun LC 5000 (R5) is an important commercial LCP with high processing temperature (300'C), whereas Rodrun LC 3000 (R3) has one of the lowest (240'C) LCP processing temperatures. Both are copolyesters of poly-(hydroxybenzoic acid) (PHBA) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) with different comonomer ratios. The blends of these two LCP's could produce materials with intermediate properties that would widen the commercially available range of LCP's. This is in addition to the possibility of reducing the processing temperature of R5.Moreover, when the phase structure of R5/R3 blends obtained in a Haake mixer was studied, the blends were found to be miscible. 14 The processability of blends of...