Characterization of multi-injected poly(ε-caprolactone)

The effect of multiple (up to 10 times) injection molding of poly(epsilon-caprolactone) on its mechanical properties, Charpy impact strength, melt flow rate, phase transition temperature and degradation temperature is presented. It was found that the tensile strength at break, impact strength and degradation temperature slightly decreased, while the melt flow rate steadily increased with raising of the number of the injection molding cycles. Variation of the number of these cycles mostly influenced the crystallization temperature. The melting point, enthalpy of crystallization, enthalpy of melting and crystallinity did not vary with the number of injection moldings. The presented results indicate that poly(epsilon-caprolactone) technological waste is suitable to be reused as an additive to a neat polymer. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.