COMPOSITES BASED ON DRAWN STRANDS OF THERMOTROPIC LIQUID-CRYSTALLINE POLYMER REINFORCED POLYPROPYLENE

This paper is concerned with the use of two thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers (TLCPs), HX1000 and Vectra B950, to reinforce a thermoplastic matrix of polypropylene (PP). The goal was to pregenerate the optimal TLCP reinforcement in PP and then process the material at a lower temperature than the melting point of the TLCP to form a composite structure. Specifically, strands of the blend were produced using a dual extrusion process, which resulted in the formation of axially continuous TLCP fibrils within the PP matrix. It was found that the mechanical properties of the strands were greatly improved by increased draw ratio and that optimal reinforcement, as predicted by the rule of mixtures, could be achieved, Initial studies indicated that injection molding and sheet extrusion of the pelletized strands caused the TLCP phase to agglomerate and deform, which resulted in a reduction of the mechanical property enhancement. However, the TLCP fibrillar morphology in the pregenerated strands was maintained during compression molding, which resulted in uniaxial composites with properties equal to or greater than properties of the strands, In addition, composites were made using compression molding in which strands were randomly oriented prior to consolidation to show the limits of properties possible in composites produced from the pregenerated strands. It was found that this process could be used to produce composites in which the mechanical properties were isotropic in the plane of the sample and approached the properly limits predicted by composite theory. Additionally, it was found that many of the mechanical properties of the VB/PP materials were greatly enhanced by the addition of a maleated PP throughout the composite forming process.