Fabrication of polycarbonate blends with poly(methyl methacrylate-co-phenyl methacrylate) copolymer: Miscibility and scratch resistance properties

doi:10.1016/j.jiec.2016.02.005

Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry

Volume 36, 25 April 2016, Pages 251-254

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiec.2016.02.005 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Polycarbonate was blended with poly(methyl methacrylate-co-phenyl methacrylate) copolymer.
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The PC/PMPA blends were miscible at all of the compositions used in this study.
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There was only one glass-transition temperature (T_g) for each composition and this T_g shifted systematically with the blend composition.
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The PC/PMPA blends show a significantly improved PC scratch resistance without reducing their tensile properties.

Abstract

Poly(methyl methacrylate-co-phenyl methacrylate) (PMPA) was blended with polycarbonate (PC) to ameliorate the poor scratch resistance of pure PC. The miscibility of the PC/PMPA blends was analyzed by dynamic-mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and optical measurements. These results indicated that PC/PMPA blends are miscible at all of the compositions used in this study. Also, quantitative analysis of their miscibility was performed by using classical glass-transition temperature (T_g)-composition models (Fox equation and Gordon-Taylor equation). The PMPA effect on the tensile properties and scratch resistance of PC/PMPA blends were investigated. With increasing PMPA content, the scratch resistance of the blends was found to increase, whereas other tensile properties such as tensile strength and tensile modulus did not change due to the good miscibility between PC and PMPA.

Graphical abstract

Introduction

For many years, there has been much interest in the research of polymer blends because they can help to obtain high-performance polymers instead of synthesis of newly designed polymer when the desirous properties of each polymer are united synergistically. In other words, one may achieve useful combinations by blending the materials into a single product. Furthermore, one should infer a continuous range of the properties simply by varying the blend composition. Generally, polymers having high glass-transition temperature and transparency are attractive for industrial polymer engineering due to strong economic benefits that should come from their utilitarian applications.

Polycarbonate (PC) is an amorphous engineering thermoplastic with an excellent combination of properties such as good processability, low density, high transparency, and good strength. Transparent PC has been used to a various industrial applications such as flat-display panels for portable electronic devices, eyewear lenses, compact disks, and safety windows [1]. In spite of its great physical and optical properties, the PC has limited applications because of its poor scratch and abrasion resistance characteristics [2], [3], [4], [5]. Therefore, PC has been modified and tailored in various ways, particularly by blending with other polymers for use in demanding applications [6].

PC/Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) blends have received many research attention [7], [8], [9] because PMMA is also one of the transparent polymers that possesses many usable properties, such as low weight, high transmittance, chemical resistance, resistance to weathering corrosion, scratch resistance, and good insulating properties [10]. Importantly, though PMMA and PC are transparent polymers, their resulting blends show heterogeneous phase morphology having bad interfacial adhesion and therefore, their ﬁnal properties are poor. It has been demonstrated that various blending strategies using in-situ or out-situ modiﬁcation of the blends can increase the compatibility between PC and PMMA.

To enlarge PC's property (durability) window and thereby its application field, PC needs to be scratch resistant. In this study, we tackled the poor scratch resistance problem of PC using PMMA copolymers containing compatible comonomer. We showed that PC blends with this PMMA copolymer could dramatically improve PC's scratch resistance without reducing their tensile properties.

Section snippets

Experimental

Materials. PC (Lexan 143, melt flow index ≈ 10.5 g/10 min at 300 °C and 1.2 kg load) was obtained from SABIC. Poly(methyl methacrylate-co-phenyl methacrylate) (PMPA) was supplied from Stahnek Co., Ltd., Incheon, Korea. The number-average molecular weight (M_n), weight-average molecular weight (M_w) and polydispersity index (PDI) were 18,800 g/mol, 36,500 g/mol, and 1.95, respectively. The content of phenyl methacrylate monomer in the copolymer was 29 mol%.

Preparation of blends. The melt blending was

Results and discussion

Generally, a single glass-transition temperature (T_g) is a reasonable evidence for homogeneous phase in polymeric blend systems. Thus, thermal behavior measurement was conducted to ascertain the glass transition behavior for PC/PMPA blends. Fig. 1 shows DSC thermograms for PC/PMPA blends with one T_g in all compositions. As shown in Fig. 1, only one T_g for each composition was appeared and this T_g shifted systematically with the blend composition. These results strongly indicate that the PC/PMPA

Conclusion

To improve the scratch resistance characteristics of commercial PC products, poly(methyl methacrylate-co-phenyl methacrylate) (PMPA) was selected. High miscibility for PC/PMPA blends was confirmed by the Gordon-Taylor equation. The blends were transparent in the visible light range and the optical transparency of the blends was not reduced because the blend was miscible. As the PMPA content increased, the hardness of the blends also increased. These results indicate that the relatively

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Technology Innovation Program (10031270) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), Republic of Korea and authors also thank to the financial support from GRRC program of Gyeonggi Province (GRRC Dankook 2014-B01).

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Fabrication of polycarbonate blends with poly(methyl methacrylate-co-phenyl methacrylate) copolymer: Miscibility and scratch resistance properties

Highlights

Abstract

Graphical abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Experimental

Results and discussion

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Superlattice. Microstruct.

Thin Solid Films

Diam. Relat. Mater.

Polymer

Polymer

Surf. Coat. Technol.

Polymer

J. Non-Cryst. Solids

J. Sol-Gel Sci. Technol.