The Influence of Electron Beam Irradiation Dose and Polyfunctional Monomers Concentrations on the Physico-mechanical Characteristics of the EPDM/HPDE Blends

The paper presents a study on the improvement of physico-mechanical characteristics of blends containing ethylene-propyleneterpolymer (EPDM) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) by electron beam (EB) irradiation and polyfunctional monomers (PFMs) addition. Dependence of physico-mechanical properties on irradiation dose was determined from a dose range of 0 kGy to 200 kGy. As PFMs, trimethylol-propane-trimethacrylate (TMPT) and zinc-diacrylate (ZDA) were used. The obtained results show that EB irradiation produces EPDM crosslinking and improves the characteristics of the mixture. To reduce the EB irradiation dose, PFMs were introduced.