Morphology-tensile behavior relationship in injection molded poly(ethylene terephthalate)/polyethylene and polycarbonate/polyethylene blends (I) - Part I - Skin-core structure

The skin-core structure of injection molded poly( ethylene terephthalate) (PET)/polyethylene (PE) and polycarbonate (PC)/PE blends was investigated. The results indicate that both shape and size of the PET and PC phases depended not only on the nature properties of PET/PE and PC/PE blends, but also on the injection molding parameters such as injection speed and the positions in the molded bars. The morphology in the section perpendicular to the melt flow direction included four layers, surface, sub-skin, intermediate layers as well as core zone. The surface layer was ignored in the present study. The sub-skin layer contained more or less fibrous structure and its thickness gradually decreased along the molded bar from the gate toward the non-gate end. At the same injection speed, the concentration of the injection-induced fibers in PC/PE blend was much higher than that in PET/PE blend. In the core region, the dispersed phase was mainly composed of spherical particles whose diameter increased along the melt flow pathway. Between these two layers, there was an intermediate layer where the dispersed particles mainly assumed the form of fibers, ellipsoids or spheres. Generally, no matter whether the dispersed particles were elongated or not during injection molding, the PET particles were larger than PC ones. (C) 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.