Preparation, structure and properties of dynamically vulcanized polypropylene/acrylonitrile butadiene rubber/zinc dimethacrylate ternary blend composites containing maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene

This work demonstrated an approach to compatibilization between polypropylene (PP) and acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) by using maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MA-g-PP) as a compatibilizer in the presence of zinc dimethacrylate (ZDMA). It was observed that ZDMA increased the interfacial bonding between NBR and PP matrix. Incorporation of MA-g-PP further increased the mechanical properties of the resultant blends. The morphology analysis, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and crystallization behavior study indicated that incorporation of MA-g-PP would change the polarity of the PP phase, facilitating more ZDMA diffusing from NBR into the PP phase during melt mixing. As a result, the possible creation resulted from polymerization of ZDMA combined with MA-g-PP increased the interface adhesion and compatibility between PP and NBR phases, which contributed to the considerable improvement in mechanical properties of the resultant blends. Moreover, we found that MA-g-PP did not influence the size of the crosslinked NBR phase, but significantly improved the viscosity of the resultant materials.