Miscible blend of ESCOR acid terpolymer and EAA copolymers

Abstract

Blends of ESCOR 310 terpolymer, a terpolymer consisting of polyethylene, poly(acrylic acid), and poly(methyl acrylate), and a series of EAA copolymers of different blend compositions were prepared by melt mixing on a twin-screw extruder. Mechanical, thermal analysis, rheological, and dynamic mechanical properties of the ESCOR/EAAs blends were studied. Most blends exhibited improvements in tensile strength at break, Young's modulus, hardness (shore-D), and a reduction in elongaion at break with the increase in EAA content. Some blends showed synergestic behavior due to higher percent crystallinity, whereas other blends showed property values below a linear relationship because of phase separation. The thermal behavior, rheological, and dynamic mechanical properties showed that ESCOR/EAAs blends were partially miscible at all compositions. Except all EAA5 blends were totally miscible blends. For the application, ESCOR/EAA5 at 80% wt of EAA5 was considered to be the most suitable for use as a vibration and sound dampening material due to its high tan (or dampening peak) observed from dynamic mechanical analysis.