ESTUDO DA DEGRADAÇÃO TERMOMECÂNICA E OXIDATIVA DA BLENDA POLIMÉRICA PEAD/PS

Abstract

The degradation of polymer blends has been the subject of few scientific studies. Further studies are of great importance for understanding the degradation mechanisms in polymer blends. The degradation of the blend of HDPE / PS was studied as a function of their composition, processing temperature and number of processes. The material was extruded in a twin screw extruder co-rotacional interpenetrating at temperatures of 200, 240 and 280 ° C, reprocessed five times in the compositions of 25/75, 50/50 and 75/25 % (w.t) HDPE / PS, in addition to pure materials. An estimate of the distribution curve of molecular weight was made using data from parallel plate rheometry and degradation characteristics of the groups were analyzed by infrared spectroscopy with Fourier transformants. The results reveal two distinct regions of behavior in relation to the degradation of the blend. A domain with the mechanism of degradation of PS in which random chain scission occurs without the change in polydispersity, extending from pure PS to blend 50% HDPE / 50% PS. In this region the behavior is closer to the additivity of effects between the pure materials, tending to the field of mechanism of PS and greater balance between the mechanisms in that it increased the concentration of HDPE. It is inferred that this behavior go to about 40% of PS, where nearly co-continuity occurs between the phases. Another region is seen from the 75% HDPE blend. 25% PS to the pure HDPE, where the dominant mechanism is HDPE, with predominant chain branching and polydispersity increased at lower temperatures, in this case 200 ° C, and high rise of chain scission at higher temperatures, 280 ° C. In this region there is a synergistic effect towards the mechanism of HDPE, i.e. the addition of 25% of BP leads to a show very similar behavior to that of pure HDPE, distinguishing the effect of additivity. There is greater resistance to oxidation, synergistic effect, especially in the composition of 75% HDPE/PS 25% attributed to the dispersed morphology of the blends in this composition.