Performance Improvement of PS from Expanded Polystyrene Off-grade

EPS off-grade is commonly known as waste in the manufacturing process of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS). It is worthwhile to recover such waste by improving its properties. However, blowing agent used in the EPS would be a drawback in the recovering process. Our research implemented the improvement by the addition of impact modifier i.e. Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) and Styrene-Ethylene-Butylene-Styrene (SEBS) at 20, 30 and 40%wt, respectively. This research investigated the morphology, mechanical behaviors and thermal stability of the blends compared with its virgin materials. The results showed that both impact modifiers could enhance the impact strength of PS. The addition of SEBS resulted in relatively better performances than the SBS counterparts for impact strength and tensile strength. In term of tensile modulus, PS blended with SBS at the content of more than 20% wt. would be higher than SEBS. From TGA data, both PS/SBS and PS/SEBS blends exhibited better thermal stability than PS itself. PS/SBS blend systems possessed higher thermal stability than the PS/SEBS blend systems.