PHASE MORPHOLOGY AND MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF POLYMER BLENDS INCLUDING THERMOPLASTIC STARCH

摘要

Blends including thermoplastic starch are compounded by means of co-rotating, close-intermeshing twin-screw extruders. The different base materials are rheologically and mechanically characterised in detail /1/. Apart from the mechanical properties, the morphology of the polymer blends is determined by using scanning electron microscopy and image analysis. Consequently the functional relationships of the basic material parameters, the process parameters, the morphology, and the mechanical blend properties can be derived. The results clearly show that with the models of conventional, synthetic polymer blends, the morphology cannot be exactly described. For thermoplastic starch, the models must be modified, due to the high elasticity of the polymer melt.