Facile preparation of thermoplastic elastomer with high service temperature from dry selective curing of compatibilized EPDM/polyamide-12 blends

"A facile preparation of thernioplastic elastomer (TPE) from simple polymer blends, elastically reinforced through a dry curing process, is introduced in this study. A TPE with a high service temperature of up to similar to 180 degrees C is prepared by riielt mixing ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM) with polyamide-12 in the presence Of maleated EPDM as a compatibilizer. A dry curing process employing electron beam (e-beam) irradiation is then applied for the selective cross-linking of the EPDM components, which is confirmed by the gel content and differential scanning calorimetry measurements. The mechanical and elastic properties of the TPE are improved by the e-beam irradiation, as evidenced by the measurements of tensile strength, elongation at break, Young's modulus and tension set, affording a tough TPE. Repeated thermal recycling of the TPE demonstrates an excellent reprocessing capability, affording environmentally friendly TPEs using commercially available resources. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved."This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2012R1A1A2005345). This work was also supported by a grant from the Fundamental R&D Program for Core Technology of Materials (10037176) funded by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Republic of Korea. This research was also supported by the Fusion Research Program for Green Technologies through the NRF funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2012M3C1A1054503)