Morphology and mechanical properties of polypropylene and poly(ethylene-co-methyl acrylate) blends

The morphology and mechanical properties of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and poly(ethylene-comethyl acrylate) (EMA) blends were investigated. Various EMA copolymers with different methyl acrylate (MA) comonomer content were used. iPP and EMA formed immiscible blends over the composition range studied. The crystallization and melting reflected that of the individual components and the crystallinity was not greatly affected. The size of the iPP crystals was larger in the blends than those of pure iPP, indicating that EMA may have reduced the nucleation density of the iPP; however, the growth rate of the iPP crystals was found to remain constant. The tensile elongation at break was greatly increased by the presence of EMA, although the modulus remained approximately constant until the EMA composition was greater than 20%. EMA with a 9.0% MA content provided the optimum effect on the mechanical properties of the blends