Enhancement of compatibility and toughening of commingled packaging film wastes

Abstract

The relationships among mechanical properties, theological properties, and morphology by reactive extrusion based on commingled pckaging film wastes containg polypropylene (PP) pckaging film system [PP/polyethylene (PE)/ aluminum (Al)/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)] and Nylon packaging film system[Nylon/PE/linear-low density polyethylene (LLDPE)] were investigated to improve the compatibility and toughness of these wastes using various compatibilizers such as ethylene vinylacetate (EVA), styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene triblock copolymer (SEBS), styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene-graft-maleic anhydride copolymer (SEBS-g-MA), polyethylene-graft-maleic anhydride (PE-g-MA), polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA), polyethylene-graft-acrylic acid (PE-g-AA) and polypropylene-graft-acrylic acid (PP-g-AA). Compared with simple melt blend system, the blends showed improvement of about 50% increase in physical properties when SEBS and EVA were added. However, SEBS-g-MA thermoplastic elastomer which is highly reactive with amine terminal group of nylon, resulted in about 200% increase in impact strength. This compatibilization effect resulted from the increase of interfacial adhesion and the reduction of domain size of dispersed phase in PP/Nylon blend system.