pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S04 - (General Session 4) Polymer Blends and Alloys
Oral Presentation
 
 

Improvement of both impact properties and fluidity of polypropylene blends through reactive extrusion

JOSSE Camille (1)*, MASSARDIER Valérie (1), CASSAGNAU Philippe (2), VIOT Frédéric (3)

(1) INSA DE LYON - VILLEURBANNE - France, (2) UNIVERSITE CLAUDE BERNARD - VILLEURBANNE - France, (3) PLASTIC OMNIUM - SAINTE JULIE - France

During the last three decades, polypropylene (PP) has been one of the most studied thermoplastic because of its great versatility, easy processing and relative low cost. Many enhancements have been carried out to compensate its high brittleness, essentially by blending with a thermoplastic polyolefin elastomer (POE) of very low glass transition like ethylene-propylene rubber (EPR), ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM) or ethylene-octene copolymer (EOC). The use of such materials into a PP matrix not only greatly increases the impact strength and the crack propagation resistance but also has a considerable thickening effect of the melt residing in the very high viscosity of POEs. Nevertheless, in the focus of weight and cost reductions, the automotive industry steps towards the use of very high flow materials (MFR > 30 dg/min) without sacrificing the impact properties. Against this background and in a recycling context, we have investigated an original strategy consisting in the reactive extrusion of a common (PP/EPR) with a reactive homopolymer PP of very high melt flow and different POEs. Several formulations have been realized then the physical, thermal and rheological properties have been discussed. A qualitative study of the morphology was also carried out to allow explaining the behavior of the composite. Although we often have observed a compromise between fluidity and impact properties, some of the achieved materials exhibit a melt flow rate above 40 dg/min while keeping a ductile behavior with an incomplete notched Charpy fracture.