Toughness improvement of LLDPE/PP blend by incorporation of GTR waste

ROSALES, CAREN; HOCINE, NOURREDINE AIT; BERNAL, CELINA; PETTARIN, VALERIA

POLYMER BULLETIN

SPRINGER

Año: 2023 vol. 81 p. 6743 - 6760

0170-0839

In this work, the viability of obtaining a completed recycled composite withimproved toughness by the addition of ground tire rubber (GTR) waste to a linearlow-density polyethylene (LLDPE)/polypropylene (PP) blend is explored. The ideaof maintaining additional processing steps as low as possible, thus reducing costs,prevailed. Thus, no treatment was performed on GTR particles, and direct blendingwas applied. Materials were evaluated by means of mechanical and fracture behavior,in relation to their microstructure and composition. Despite of different particlecontent and size incorporated, no changes in crystalline structure of LLDPE andPP were observed. Tensile behavior of composites became more ductile than theLLDPE/PP blend—decrease in stiffness around 30% and increase in elongation atbreak up to 280%—which is directly related to the elastomeric nature of rubber particles.However, there was no clear trend between tensile parameters and particles’sizes and percentages added. On the other side, fracture tests were very sensitiveto changes induced by GTR. Even though there was no adhesion expected betweenthermoplastic matrix and GTR, the toughness initiation parameter increased with thecontent of particles added, indicating that interaction occurred between composites