EFFECT OF MOLECULAR WEIGHT OF PDMS ON MORPHOLOGY AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF PP/PDMS BLENDS

 A series of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with varied molecular weights (Mw = 3  106, 1  106 and 0.5  106) were melt blended with PP to investigate the effect of PDMS molecular weight (MW) on the morphology and mechanical properties of PP/PDMS blends. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) examination showed that the size of PDMS domains was dependent on the MW of PDMS. It was found that the lower the value of PDMS MW, the better dispersion of the PDMS domains in the PP matrix. Tensile and Izod impact tests revealed that the addition of PDMS with lower MW would lead to a more significant increase in impact strength of the blends compared with the blends with higher MW ones, while the influence of the molecular weight on tensile strengths of the blends was relatively small in the MW range studied. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results also showed that the crystallization temperature of PP was increased with decreasing PDMS MW, indicating a better nucleation capability of lower MW of PDMS. Melting flow rate (MFR) measurements indicated that the processibility of PP could be enhanced by adding PDMS, and again the lower MW PDMS resulted in better data. Our work demonstrates that not only the processibility but also the mechanical properties of PP could be enhanced to a more significant degree by using low MW PDMS than the higher ones.