INVESTIGATION OF SOME MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF TERNARY POLYMER BLENDS BASED ON POLYPROPYLENE
Author(s):
Sihama Issa Salih†, Wafaa Mahdi Salih† & Teeb Adnan Mohameed‡
Affiliation(s):
†Materials Engineering Department, University of Technology / Baghdad-Iraq
‡Central Organization for Standardization and Quality Control Baghdad, Iraq
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One of the main problems that occur when preparing a polymer blend is the incompatibility between its components and this weakens the mechanical properties. So, in this work, use maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (PP-g-MA) within limited proportions (1%) as compatibilizing agent to prepared two sets of polymeric blends by using twin-screw extruder. The first group contained (polypropylene (PP): X%poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA):1% (PP-g-MA)), whereas the second group consists of (polypropylene (PP): X% Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE):1% (PP-g-MA)) with the ratios of secondary materials (PMMA and UHMWPE) in each group of polymer blends are (5%, 10% 15% and 20%). The results showed that the polymeric blends (PP: X%PMMA: 1%(PP-g-MA)) got higher values in tensile strength, elasticity modulus and hardness values, whereas, the polymeric blends (PP: X%UHMWPE: 1%(PP-g-MA)), got higher values in compressive strength. In this work, it was concluded that, the highest values of tensile strength, elasticity modulus, shore D hardness and compressive strength are 30 MPa, 0.55 GPa, 67.6 and 162.17 MPa respectively. As well as, the adding 1%(PP-g-MA) for both groups of thepolymeric blends, it was act as an agent to effective compatibility between constituent of polymer blend, and the morphological analysis showed good compatibility between the components of polymeric blends.