Bitumen/polyethylene blends: using m-LLDPEs to improve stability and viscoelastic properties

The stability and the rheological properties of blends of a 60/70 penetration-grade bitumen with conventional HDPEs and metallocene catalysed LLDPEs (m-LLDPE) are investigated. Considerably better stability results are obtained using m-LLDPEs instead of conventional polyethylenes, allowing one to avoid phase separation of the emulsion-like system during storage at high temperature. Thermodynamical interaction between bitumen and polyethylene is discarded as a cause of the observed difference, because the solubility parameter is practically the same for all the investigated polyethylenes. The result is explained on the basis of the lower melt elasticity of m-LLDPEs (attributed to their narrow molecular weight distribution), which facilitates the drop breakup during mixing process. The modification of bitumen with any of the m-LLDPEs considered in this work gives a new material with considerably improved viscoelastic properties.