Thesis-1996-Hashim.pdf (5.14 MB)
Compatibilization of poly(vinylidene fluoride)/nylon 6 blends by intermolecular association
thesis
posted on 2017-06-14, 15:56 authored by Kamaruddin HashimBlends of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and polyamide 6 (N6) are interesting for
both scientific studies and commercial exploitation. PVDF is known to be miscible
with polymers produced from monomers containing carbonyl side groups, eg.
polyethyl acrylate, polyacrylamide etc., but is not miscible with polymers containing
carbonyl groups in the main chain, ego polyamides, polyester, etc. Although complete
miscibility of the blend components is not always necessary, strong physical
interactions between the two components are needed in order to obtain a compatible
blend, i.e. one which exhibits good mechanical properties.
An investigation was carried out to explore the possibility to compatibilise blends of
PVDF and N6 using y-radiation to graft acid groups on either polymer and
subsequently ionomerizing these with zinc cations. Graft copolymer type of
compatibilizer was produced when the acid functionalized PVDF (grafted PVDF) was
blended with N6 or acid functionalized N6 (grafted N6).
Fourier transform infrared analysis has confirmed the occurance of reactions between
acid groups in the grafted PVDFand amine groups in the N6. The compatibility of the
PVDF/N6 blends was found to increase with increasing amount of carboxylic acid
groups in the two polymers. This was accompanied by an increase in Tg of the N6
phase in blend, which became more pronounced when both components were grafted.
Tensile test and solvent resistance experiments were carried out to relate the
compatibization of the blend to the improvement in mechanical properties.
Ionomerization of the functionalized polymers with zinc cations was performed in
order to study the effect on compatibility of the blend. The neutralization of the acid
groups in either polymer in the blend by addition of zinc acetyl acetonate was found to
suppress the chemical reaction with the amine end groups in the N6 phase, and to
cause a reduction in the T g and a reduction in crosslinking of the N 6 phase. However
when both polymers were grafted, the crystallinity of the N6 phase was restored,
which was accompanied by an increase in Tg.
History
School
- Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering
Department
- Materials
Publisher
© K. HashimPublisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
1996Notes
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.Language
- en