Influence of Reactive Compatibilization on the Melt Flow Properties and Morphology of Polyamide 6/Styrene-Acrylonitrile Blends

Summary: In this study, we investigate the influence of reactive compatibilization on the rheological properties of polyamide 6/styrene-acrylonitrile (PA 6/SAN) blends in the melt. Linear viscoelastic shear oscillations, simple elongation to a large stretch ratio and subsequent recovery experiments were performed. The morphology of the blends was examined by atomic force microscopy. We prepared three PA 6/SAN blends with different composition ratios of PA 6 and SAN (70/30, 50/50, 30/70) and a constant concentration of the reactive agent. Our experiments revealed that reactive compatibilization significantly increases the complex modulus of PA 6/SAN blends at low frequencies. In particular, the data of the PA 6/SAN 50/50 blend and the PA 6/SAN 30/70 blend indicated that an elastic network between neighbouring PA 6 domains was formed. In simple elongation, the transient elongational viscosity of the blends exceeded the values of the single components. In recovery, the recovered stretch of all blends was larger than the recovered stretch of the pure components. The differences of the blend morphology and of the linear viscoelastic behaviour were qualitatively explained by the asymmetric properties of the reactively compatibilized interface.