Surface treatment of poly(ethylene terephthalate) by gamma-ray induced graft copolymerization of methyl acrylate and its toughening effect on poly(ethylene terephthalate)/elastomer blend

To improve the compatibility between ethylene-methyl acrylate-glycidyl methacrylate random terpolymer (E-MA-GMA) elastomer and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), thereby enhance the toughening effect of E-MA-GMA on PET, γ-radiation-induced graft copolymerization technique was used to graft methyl acrylate (MA) monomer onto PET. The produced PET-g-PMA copolymer can be used as a self-compatibilizer in PET/E-MA-GMA blend since the copolymer contains the same segments, respectively, with PET and E-MA-GMA. The impact strength of PET/E-MA-GMA blend increased nearly by 30% in the presence of less than 0.1 wt% PET-g-PMA compared with that of the neat PET/elastomer blend, without loss of the tensile strength of the blends. This work proposed a potential application of radiation-induced grafting copolymerization technique on the in-situ compatibilization of PET/elastomer blends so as to improve the integral mechanical properties of PET based engineering plastic.