Mechanical and fracture behavior of polypropylene/poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) blends compatibilized with ionomer Na

In this work the deformation and fracture behavior of PP/EVOH blends compatibilized with ionomer Na⁺ at room and low temperature was studied. Uniaxial tensile tests on dumb-bell samples and fracture tests on single-edge notched bending (SENB) specimens were performed for 10 wt.% and 20 wt.% EVOH blends with different ionomer content at 23 °C and −20 °C. The incorporation of EVOH to PP led to less ductile materials in tension as judged by the lower values of the ultimate tensile strain displayed by all PP/EVOH blends in comparison to neat PP. In contrast, the ionomer Na⁺ addition partially counteracted this effect. The compatibilizing effect of ionomer Na⁺ was also evident in fracture results since higher values of the fracture parameter were obtained for the ternary blends. SEM observations also confirmed this effect. On the other hand, PP/EVOH blends exhibited different fracture behavior with test temperature. All blends showed “pseudo stable” behavior at room temperature characterized by apparently stable crack growth that could not be externally controlled. On the contrary, blends behaved as semi-brittle at −20 °C with some amount of stable crack growth preceding unstable brittle fracture. Finally, irrespectively of the temperature or the ionomer content all PP/EVOH blends exhibited more ductile fracture behavior with a higher tendency to stable crack propagation than neat polypropylene.