Investigation on the morphological and mechanical properties of (polyamide 6)/(poly[styrene-co-acrylonitrile])/(poly[styrene-b-{ethylene-co-butylene}-b-styrene]) ternary blends

In this work, ternary polymer blends based on (polyamide 6)/(poly[styrene-co-acrylonitrile])/(poly[styrene-b-{ethylene-co-butylene}-b-styrene]) (SEBS) triblock copolymer and a varying concentration of the reactive (maleic anhydride)-grafted SEBS were prepared by using a melt-blending process. The effects of the material parameters (composition of ternary blends and SEBS/[{maleic anhydride}-grafted SEBS] concentration ratio) and blending sequence on the morphological and mechanical properties of ternary blends were studied. Taguchi experimental design methodology was employed to design the experiments and select the material and processing parameters for the optimized mechanical properties. Tensile properties (Young's modulus and yield stress) and impact strength were considered as the response variables. It was demonstrated that there is a meaningful relationship between the composition of blends, processing parameters, observed phase structure, and obtained mechanical properties. The mechanical tests showed that the highest impact strength was achieved as the dispersion of the rubbery phase achieved an optimum size of about 1 m. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 23:329-337, 2017. (c) 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers