Melt-mixing into thermoplastic polymers

On melt mixing of the thermoplastic and rubbery polymers under high stress, the less viscous thermoplastic tends to become the continuous phase with the more viscous rubber dispersed in it. The dispersed rubber particles are then vulcanized and form a three-dimensional polymer network within each particle they cannot recombine or agglomerate into larger particles. The most common polymer system in TPVs is PP/EPDM rubber, however, a number of other polymer systems have been used commercially. These include NBR/PP, IIR/PP, and NR/PP. 

For bulk materials, Jin et al fabricated poly (methylmethacrylate) (PMMA)/MWNT nanocomposites by melt mixing. MWNTs were well dispersed in the matrix [90]. Melt compounding is also widely used for the fabrication of composite fibers. Sandler et al mixed polyamide-12 pellets and CNTs in a twin-screw micro-extruder and then the extrudate was chopped and fed into a capillary rheometer with 1 mm die. The CNTs in the spun fibers were uniformly dispersed [91]. Not only can thermoplastic polymers be melt-compounded, polyimide, a thermoset plastic, can be also prepared by mixing the imide oligomer at 320 °C on a steel plate and then cured at 370°C. It was found that the dispersion of CNTs in... 

---