Desenvolvimento de blendas nanoestruturadas SAN/PBT modificadas com copolímeros acrílicos reativos

Abstract

In this work we have obtained transparent nanoblends of poly(styrene-coacrylonitrile) (SAN) as matrix and poly(butylene terephthalate) as a nanometric phase. The materials were produced by means of reactive mixing in a twin screw extrude. The development of compatibilization systems, in order to diminish the dimension of dispersed phase in situ, can be seen as a great scientific challenge in nanoblends field. In such case, the compatibilizer optimizes the comminution and prevents the coalescence process of the dispersed phase. The compatibilization between SAN and PBT phases was performed using terpolymers of methyl methacrylate (MMA), glycidyl methacrylate (GMA), and ethyl acrylate (EA), denoted as MGE. Using bulk polymerization, we have applied different conditions for compatibilizer syntheses, in order to achieve a decreasing in the MGE molecular weight. The analyses of the reactivity of different compatibilizer with PBT were accomplished by using both torque rheometry and transmission electron microscopy. We have noticed that as the molecular weight of MGE decreases, the particles sizes of the dispersed phase diminishes accordingly. This part of the study culminated in the selection of the better MGE for nanoblends production. Blends with concentration varying from 3 to 30% wt were prepared in an extruder. These nanoblends were characterized with respect to thermal, dynamic-mechanical, rheological, mophorlogical and optical properties. We have shown that the MGE incorporation presents a high-efficiency for the decreasing of the PBT domains and plays an important role for the optical properties of the resulting nanoblends.