Thermal Behaviour of Blends of HDPE with Long-chain Branched HBPE

The thermal behaviour of new blends on the base of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and of long-chain branched polyethylenes (HBPE) made by means of new metallocene catalysts has been studied by DSC in relation to the melting and crystallisation characteristics and discussed in the phase behaviour of the mixtures. While HBPE's with 7.5 to 12 per cent by mass of octene as comonomer in the blends with HDPE are relevant for the formation of homogeneous composition regions. Especially, with higher HBPE contents, the phase separation and splitting of the melting and crystallisation peaks is observed. This behaviour has not been observed with 2 per cent by mass of octene in HBPE. The dependence of the melting and crystallisation temperatures of HDPE/HBPE blends on the octene content of the HBPE's for constant composition of mixtures have been shown for both the homogeneous and heterogeneous mixing. Blends of a high-molecular HDPE and a HBPE resulted in a reduction of the composition range not effected by phase separation. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.