Thermosetting Blend Systems with Rubbers and Thermoplastics

Thermosetting Blend Systems with Rubbers and Thermoplastics 

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Thermosetting Blend Systems with Rubbers and Thermoplastics ... 

The EP thermoplastic elastomers are distinguished from the crossUnked analogues, which are not thermoplastics since reforming is impossible. A very important thermoplastic elastomer is comprised of a blend of an EP copolymer with an ethylene-propylene-diene (EPDM) terpolymer. This latter material is, of course, a crosslinkable thermoset however, these materials can be processed as thermoplastics if the crosslinkable component is present at low enough concentration to be present as an isolated phase. Melt-processing causes the formation of chemical bonds within the isolated rubber phase, a process called dynamic vulcanization. A commercial example of this type of material is Santoprene [4] manufactured by Advanced Elastomer Systems. Other blends of noncrosslinkable TPEs with crosslinkable materials are used commercially. These materials are classified as elastomer blends and are the subject of Chapter 12. 

Polybutadiene-type resins n. Unsaturated, thermosetting hydrocarbons cured by a peroxide-catalyzed, vinyl-type polymerization reaction, or by sodium-catalyzed polymerization of butadiene or blends of butadiene and styrene. Liquid systems, curable in the presence of monomers, are used for casting, encapsulation, and potting of electrical components, and in making laminates. Molding compounds, often containing fillers and modified with other resins or rubbers, may be compression or transfer molded. Syndiotactic 1,2-butadiene, introduced in 1974 in Japan, is thermoplastic, with semicrystalline nature, with good transparency and flexibility without plasticization. In the presence of a photosensitizer such as p,p -tetramethyl... 

Multiphase or multicomponent polymers can clearly be more complex structurally than single phase materials, for there is the distribution of the various phases to describe as well as their internal structure. Most polymer blends, block and graft copolymers and interpenetrating networks are multiphase systems. A major commercial set of multiphase polymer systems are the toughened, high impact or impact modified polymers. These are combinations of polymers with dispersed elastomer (rubber) particles in a continuous matrix. Most commonly the matrix is a glassy amorphous thermoplastic, but it can also be crystalline or a thermoset. The impact modified materials may be blends, block or graft copolymers or even all of these at once. 

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