Introduction of Specific Interacting Groups

The utility of specific interactions to yield miscibility in polymer blends has been discussed in Chapter 2. Incorporation of minor amounts of specific interacting groups in polymer blends may not lead to miscibility but could be employed to improve the dispersion and mechanical properties. A generalized example of this approach would be to attach a small amount of a proton acceptor to one component and a proton donor to the other component of the blend. An early reference to utilization of this approach involved grafting minor amounts ( 0.5 wt%) of an acidic or a basic monomer to components of a polyolefin blend (e.g., PE/PP) to yield improved mechanical compatibility [6]. 

Ionic interactions can yield physical crosslinks between the phases allowing for compatibihza-tion. Blends of the zinc salt of carboxylated nitrile rubber and the zinc salt of maleic anhydride 

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