TPE blends based on polypropylene and dynamically crosslinked polyolefin elastomers prepared by reactive compounding on a twin screw extruder

摘要

The field of application of thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) ranges from commodity, electrical, medical up to automotive applications. The main driving force behind the increasing demand for TPEs in the market is the cost effective production of final parts and their recy-elability as compared to the typical traditional elastomeric materials. Furthermore, TPEs exhibit thermoplastic as well as elastomeric properties, thus bridging the gap between thermoplastic materials and natural rubber. TPEs can be divided into two categories according to their structure, namely, block copolymers having at least two different segments of different monomers in the same molecular chain, and polymer blends consisting of two different, often immiscible polymers of thermoplastic and elastomeric behavior [1,2]. In this study we focus on a novel polymer blend being a combination of polypropylene (PP) as the thermoplastic part and a polyolefin elastomer (POE, based on ethylene-α-olefin copolymer) as the elastomeric part. The latter becomes partly crosslinked in a dynamic process. The aim of this study is to understand the above mentioned process and to generate thorough knowledge of sub-processes involved.