THE EFFECT OF COMPATIBILIZER LEVEL ON THE MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES OF A NYLON 6/ABS POLYMER BLEND

The influence of compatibilizer on the morphology and mechanical properties of a blend of nylon 6 and ABS has been studied. For this blend, the morphological domain size decreases significantly with increasing compatibilizer level. However, stiffness and tensile stress at yield are unaffected by these changes. Within the range of these experiments, Izod impact strength increases monotonically with increasing levels of compatibilizer, but the resistance to crack initiation (J(c)) and the resistance to steady state crack growth (R(p)) are both increased by the addition of a small amount of compatibilizer and are essentially independent of further increases.