Ternary polymer composites: PA6,6/maleated SEES/glass beads

Polyamide 6,6 (PA6,6)/maleated styrene-hydrogenated butadiene-styrene (SEBS) blends filled with up to 20% spherical glass beads (GBs) were prepared by extrusion and subsequent injection molding. Tensile and impact tests were used to examine the effect of GB additions on the mechanical behavior of PA6,6/SEBS-g-MA 80/20 blend. Tensile measurements showed that the GB additions improve the stiffness of the PA6,6/SEBS-g-MA 80/20 blend but had little effect on its tensile ductility. The impact test revealed that the impact strength of PA6,6/SEBS-g-MA 80/20 blend tends to decrease with increasing GB content. Therefore, the GB additions were beneficial to maintain a stiffness-to-toughness balance of the PA6,6/SEBS-g-MA 80/20 blend. Finally, the correlation between the experimental tensile stiffness and strength with various theoretical models is discussed. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.