Influence of compatibilizier on performance of pristine and recycled PP/PE blends

CAREN ROSALES; MARIA ALEJANDRA COSTANTINO; VALERIA PETTARIN; CELINA BERNAL; GUIDO PALAZZO; R. DEFACIO DUTRA

Guimaraes

Conferencia; PMI2018 International Conference on Polymers and Mould Innovations; 2018

One of the big challenges of recycling engineering of thermoplastics is to manufacture competitive pieces or products in terms of mechanical properties such as toughness or strength. Improved mechanical performance of recycled materials widens their application field. One of the strategies to improve PE/PP blends performance is to add special compatibilizers. The aim of present work is to obtain recycled PE/PP blends from industrial wastes whith similar properties to those of virgin PE/PP blends. Four different pristine blends were prepared: without compatibilizer) and with 11% of three different copolimer based compatibilizers. Also, three recycled blends were studied: without and with two different masterbatch compatibilizers. Blends were prepared in a single screw extruder simulating industrial processing conditions and then processed via compression moulding into plaques. Microstructure and morphology of blends were analysed by DSC and SEM. Tensile and fracture tests were carried out on mode I double edge-notched tensile specimens (DENT) at quasi-static conditions (2 mm/min). Fracture surfaces were studied by SEM