Fabrication of polycarbonate blends with poly(methyl methacrylate-co-phenyl methacrylate) copolymer: Miscibility and scratch resistance properties

• Polycarbonate was blended with poly(methyl methacrylate-co-phenyl methacrylate) copolymer.
• The PC/PMPA blends were miscible at all of the compositions used in this study.
• There was only one glass-transition temperature (Tg) for each composition and this Tg shifted systematically with the blend composition.
• The PC/PMPA blends show a significantly improved PC scratch resistance without reducing their tensile properties.

Poly(methyl methacrylate-co-phenyl methacrylate) (PMPA) was blended with polycarbonate (PC) to ameliorate the poor scratch resistance of pure PC. The miscibility of the PC/PMPA blends was analyzed by dynamic-mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and optical measurements. These results indicated that PC/PMPA blends are miscible at all of the compositions used in this study. Also, quantitative analysis of their miscibility was performed by using classical glass-transition temperature (Tg)-composition models (Fox equation and Gordon-Taylor equation). The PMPA effect on the tensile properties and scratch resistance of PC/PMPA blends were investigated. With increasing PMPA content, the scratch resistance of the blends was found to increase, whereas other tensile properties such as tensile strength and tensile modulus did not change due to the good miscibility between PC and PMPA.

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