Toughness Improvement in Ternary HDPE/PS/PET Polymer Blends with Compatibilizer

Abstract

Preparing polymer blends is an efficient way to develop new raw materials. In the present study, the morphological and mechanical properties were investigated in ternary polymer blend. The three immiscible plastics were polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polystyrene (PS), which can be found in post-consumer waste in large quantities. Three different processing methods, internal mixing, extrusion and injection moulding were used during the production. Two different kinds of compatibilizer agents were also added to the blend. The results show that the best mechanical properties can be achieved if the ternary polymer blends are produced by extrusion followed by injection moulding or direct injection moulding was used without any previous homogenization, and styrene/ethylene-butylene/styrene copolymer grafted with maleic anhydride (SEBS-g-MA) was also added to the polymer blend.