The Influence of Compatibiliser on the Properties of Polymer Composites

Thermoplastic polymers are materials of the future, with special properties, depending on the type of elastomer, the degree of reinforcement, the type of reinforcement material, the functionalization of the reinforcing material, the type of functionalization agent, the elastomer-compatibiliser-reinforcing agent ratio, etc. Polycarbonate (PC) and polyamide (PA) are two elastomers with high hardness, immiscible due to differences in polarity, processing temperature, and solubility. These factors lead to a poor dispersion of PC in the PA matrix and vice versa. Mechanical and physical properties of these polymer blends come not only from the combination of polymeric compounds, but also from the developed morphological forms (interface). Therefore, an additive is required to act as a compatibiliser able to effectively reduce elastomer viscosity. In order to observe the influence of the selected compatibiliser on the properties of polymer composites, the latter were characterized physico-mechanically and morphologically. Thus, compatibilisers chosen for this study were polycaprolactone and polyalkyloxazoline. These compatibilisers, with specific surface and free energy, intervene in polymer-polymer interactions, increasing compatibility, forming polymer-compatibiliser-polymer bonds. Considering these properties formulations of polymercompounds were established (P1-P13) based on polyamide/compatibiliser/polycarbonate/fibreglass. Tested polymer composites contain different percentages of polyamide and polycarbonate (90, 70, 50, 30, 10), compatibiliser (caprolactone and oxazoline) 3-7%, and 10-30% fibreglass.