Melt fracture of polyisobutylenes

The processability of different grades of polyisobutylene (PIB) was investigated using a capillary rheometer. Direct focus was given to the occurrence of melt fracture phenomena, such as sharkskin and gross melt fracture (GMF). The influence of molecular weight (MW) of PIB, temperature and die entrance angle on melt fracture was examined in detail. Due to their highly elastic nature, high MW PIBs were found to exhibit gross melt fracture instability even at low shear rates, rendering their processing an impossible task. An increase in temperature resulted in postponing both instabilities (sharkskin and gross) to higher shear rates, thus making their processing easier. Finally, decreasing the entrance angle below a critical value resulted in postponing the onset of GMF to higher shear rates.