Compatibilization and morphology development of immiscible ternary polymer blends

We report a novel and effective strategy that compatibilizes three immiscible polymers, polyolefins, styrene polymers, and engineering plastics, achieved by using a polyolefin-based multi-phase compatibilizer. Compatibilizing effect and morphology development are investigated in a model ternary immiscible polymer blends consisting of polypropylene (PP)/polystyrene(PS)/polyamide(PA6) and a multi-phase compatibilizer (PP-g-(MAH-co-St) as prepared by maleic anhydride (MAH) and styrene (St) dual monomers melt grafting PP. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results indicate that, as a multi-phase compatibilizer, PP-g-(MAH-co-St) shows effective compatibilization in the PP/PS/PA6 blends. The particle size of both PS and PA6 is greatly decreased due to the addition of multi-phase compatibilizer, while the interfacial adhesion in immiscible pairs is increased. This good compatibilizing effect is promising for developing a new, technologically attractive method for achieving compatibilization of immiscible multi-component polymer blends as well as for recycling and reusing of such blends. For phase morphology development, the morphology of PP/PS/PA6 (70/15/15) uncompatibilized blend reveals that the blend is constituted from PP matrix in which are dispersed composite droplets of PA6 core encapsulated by PS phase. Whereas, the compatibilized blend shows the three components strongly interact with each other, i.e. multi-phase compatibilizer has good compatibilization between the various immiscible pairs. For the 40/30/30 blend, the morphology changed from a three-phase co-continuous morphology (uncompatibilized) to the dispersed droplets of PA6 and PS in the PP matrix (compatibilized).