Polymer Engineering and Science articles from September 2005

Polymer Engineering and Science archives from September 2005

Glass transition phenomena in melt-processed polystyrene/polypropylene blends.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION Immiscible polymer blends have been of considerable interest because of their inherent capability to combine complementary functionalities of the component systems [1]. Low cost, high value materials can be easily and...

Sorption behavior in polymers above [T.sub.g]: relations between mechanical properties and swelling in limonene.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION In a previous paper, the behavior of highly swelling rubbery polymers was investigated [1]. Natural rubber (NR) and polyethylene (PE) sheets were exposed to liquid n-hexane, and the dimensional changes and transport properties...

A comparative study of multimodal vs. bimodal polyethylene pipe resins for PE-100 applications.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION Since the first use of high density polyethylene (HDPE) over 40 years ago to manufacture pipe, there has been a gradual progression toward ever higher performance standards. For pipe, this often is expressed as a pressure...

LLDPE-based mono- and multilayer blown films: effect of processing parameters on properties.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION From a global perspective, polyethylene (PE) is the largest-volume synthetic polymeric material. PE includes the following generic families: low-density PE (LDPE), high-density PE (HDPE), and linear LDPE (LLDPE). LDPE is made...

LLDPE-based mono- and multilayer blown films: property enhancement through coextrusion.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION Linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) is a copolymer of ethylene and an alpha olefin, such as butene, hexene, or octene. This alpha olefin is referred to as the comonomer. From a molecular standpoint, the presence of this...

Rheological behavior comparison between PET/HDPE and PC/HDPE microfibrillar blends.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION With the rapidly increasing use of plastics, the problem of how to deal with plastic waste at both the post-manufacturer and post-consumer stages is now an important global issue in terms of conserving carbon and petrochemical...

Improvement of mechanical properties of rubber compounds using waste rubber/virgin rubber.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION For decades the rubber industry has been facing a major challenge to find a satisfactory way to deal with the enormous quantity of rubber goods (particularly tires) that reach the end of their life cycle. According to the End...

Influence of annealing treatment on the heat distortion temperature of nylon-6/montmorillonite nanocomposites.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION Recently, clays such as montmorillonite (MMT) have been extensively used for preparing polymer/clay nanocomposites (PCNs), because they exhibit excellent thermal and mechanical properties with as little as 5 wt% clay content...

Thermal and rheological properties of mLLDPE/LDPE blends.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION The new member of the polyethylene (PE) families made by metallocene catalysts offers opportunities in the area of product development for plastics. Because of their tailored structure, with narrow molecular weight...

Determination of the compatibility of NBR-EPDM blends by an ultrasonic technique, modulated DSC, dynamic mechanical analysis, and atomic force microscopy.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION It is a common practice to blend two elastomers together even if they are thermodynamically incompatible or possess different levels of polarity or solubility. This is because the addition of a suitable compatibilizer has the...

Numerical simulation of bubble growth in viscoelastic fluid with diffusion of dissolved foaming agent.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION In recent years the quality control requirements for plastic foamed products have become increasingly stringent. For instance, for practical uses of microcellular plastics, supercritical fluid is required with a cell size on...

Mechanical behavior of high impact polystyrene based on SBR copolymers: Part I.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION In rubber-reinforced polymers, such as high impact polystyrene (HIPS), the dynamic mechanical behavior reflects the molecular relaxation characteristics of each component. Tan [delta] in this type of polymeric systems presents...

Filmability and properties of compatibilized PA6/LDPE blends.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION The incompatibility between many polymer pairs usually gives rise, upon melt blending, to blends characterized by coarse and unstable morphology and then poor mechanical properties. The compatibilization is then a necessary...

Morphology and mechanical properties of poly (phenylene sulfide)/isotactic polypropylene in situ microfibrillar blends.
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION Landfilling and incineration are no longer good ways for disposal of more and more plastic wastes, because available capacity for landfill is declining and plastics incineration may cause emission and toxic fly and bottom ash...

Morphology and fracture properties relationship of epoxy-diamine systems simultaneously modified with polysulfone and poly(ether imide).
September 1, 2005... INTRODUCTION The two methods used to enhance the macroscopic toughness of thermoset polymers are: 1) plasticization and 2) the increase in the number of toughening mechanisms by the generation of a heterogeneous structure. The first...