engleski

Study of Pet/HDPE Blends with EPDM Compatibilizer

Ecological concerns provided the need for intensive research of waste polymers recycling. Poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, is one of polymers which can be successfully recycled by several methods. It is very interesting to study mechanical recycling of PET through preparation of different polymer blends. Collected PET usually contains some high-density polyethylene (HDPE) impurities. Simultaneous recycling of PET and HDPE simplifies the recycling process and brings economical benefits. To obtain compatibile PET/HDPE blends it is necessary to use suitable types of compatibilizers. In this work PET/HDPE blends and PET/HDPE blends with ethylene-propylene diene (EPDM) compatibilizer were studied. PET/HDPE polymer blends were prepared by mixing in ratio of 97/3, 95/5, 90/10 and 85/15. EPDM compatibilizer was prepared as EPDM/HDPE masterbatch (EPDM-M). In the other step this compatibilizer was mixed with PET/HDPE blend 95/5 to obtain blends with compatibilizer. All prepared blends were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in order to study the morphology of blends and characterized by FTIR spectroscopy. Free surface energy of all blends was also measured to study the influence of compatibilizer on the interactions at the interface in polymer blends. It can be concluded that when PET/HDPE blends were prepared with EPDM-M masterbatch two step mixing process shows significant achievement in compatibility. The results show that higher interactions between phases in polymer blends are obtained when the compatibilizer is used, which is reflected on blend properties.

compatibilizer; ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM); high density polyethylene (HDPE); mechanical recycling; poly(ethylene-terephtalate) (PET); polymer blends

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