The Effect of Injection Molding Temperature on the Morphology and Mechanical Properties of PP/PET Blends and Microfibrillar Composites

Maja Kuzmanović; Laurens Delva; Ludwig Cardon; Kim Ragaert

doi:10.3390/polym8100355

The Effect of Injection Molding Temperature on the Morphology and Mechanical Properties of PP/PET Blends and Microfibrillar Composites

Polymers (Basel). 2016 Oct 9;8(10):355. doi: 10.3390/polym8100355.

Authors

Maja Kuzmanović¹, Laurens Delva², Ludwig Cardon³, Kim Ragaert⁴

Affiliations

¹ Research Group Center for Polymer and Material Technologies, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University, Technologiepark 915, 9052 Zwijnaarde, Ghent, Belgium. Maja.Kuzmanovic@UGent.be.
² Research Group Center for Polymer and Material Technologies, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University, Technologiepark 915, 9052 Zwijnaarde, Ghent, Belgium. Laurens.Delva@UGent.be.
³ Research Group Center for Polymer and Material Technologies, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University, Technologiepark 915, 9052 Zwijnaarde, Ghent, Belgium. Ludwig.Cardon@UGent.be.
⁴ Research Group Center for Polymer and Material Technologies, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University, Technologiepark 915, 9052 Zwijnaarde, Ghent, Belgium. Kim.Ragaert@UGent.be.

Abstract

Within this research the effect of injection molding temperature on polypropylene (PP)/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) blends and microfibrillar composites was investigated. Injection molding blends (IMBs) and microfibrillar composites (MFCs) of PP/PET have been prepared in a weight ratio 70/30. The samples were processed at three different injection molding temperatures (T_im) (210, 230, 280 °C) and subjected to extensive characterization. The observations from the fracture surfaces of MFCs showed that PET fibers can be achieved by three step processing. The results indicated that T_im has a big influence on morphology of IMBs and MFCs. With increasing the T_im, distinctive variations in particle and fiber diameters were noticed. The differences in mechanical performances were obtained by flexural and impact tests. Establishing relationships between the processing parameters, properties, and morphology of composites is of key importance for the valorization of MFC polymers.

Keywords: injection molding; mechanical properties; microfibrillar composites; morphology; thermal properties.