Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is known to be a useful material in substituting the conventional petroleum-based polymer used in packaging, due to its biodegradability and high mechanical strength. Despite the excellent properties of PLA, low flexibility has limited the application of this material. Thus, epoxidized palm olein (EPO) was incorporated into PLA at different loadings (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 wt%...

A unique strategy for scavenging free radicals in situ on exposure to gamma irradiation in polyethylene (PE) nanocomposites is presented. Blends of ultra-high molecular weight PE and linear low-density PE (PEB) and their nanocomposites with graphene (GPEB) were prepared by melt mixing to develop materials for biomedical implants. The effect of gamma irradiation on the microstructure and mechani...

The controlled organization of nanoparticle (NP) constituents into superstructures of well-defined shape, composition and connectivity represents a continuing challenge in the development of novel hybrid materials for many technological applications. We show that the phase separation of polymer-tethered nanoparticles immersed in a chemically different polymer matrix provides an effective and sc...

The effects of replacing PCL with acrylic acid grafted PCL (PCL-g-AA) on the structure and properties of a PCL/chitosan composite were investigated. The properties of both PCL-g-AA/chitosan and PCL/chitosan were examined and compared using FTIR, H and C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and a biodegradation test. With PCL-g-AA in the composite, compatibi...

In the present work, statistical (EOCs) and block (OBCs) ethylene-octene copolymers, with similar densities and crystallinities, were used as impact modifiers of isotactic polypropylene (iPP), and the toughening effects of these two types of elastomers were compared. The viscosity curves of EOCs were similar to those of OBCs with equivalent melt flow rate (MFR), enabling a comparison of the vis...

A melt-blended and melt-filtered real post-consumer and recyclable waste electrical and electronic equipment plastics blend (WEEEBR) was studied, where the WEEEBR contained mainly acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (~40 wt %), high impact polystyrene (~40 wt %) and polypropylene (~10 wt %). The main aim was to better understand the influence of different reprocessing conditions on the me...

The kinetics of the isothermal crystallization process from the melt of pure poly(butylene succinate)-co-(butylene carbonate) (PBS-co-BC) and its blends with cellulose acetate butylate (CAB) (10–30 wt%) was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the well-known Avrami equation. In the blends, the overall crystallization rate of PBS-co-BC became slower with increasing CAB content....

It is estimated that 60 to 70% of LLDPE enters the market as blends (Utracki 1989a), primarily with other members of the polyolefin family, e.g., LDPE or polypropylene (PP). Despite the long history of polyethylene (PE) blending and its widespread use, many questions about the homogeneity of such blends, with obvious implications for thermodynamics and for the rheology, are still not answered t...

Ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene/high-density polyethylene (UHMWPE/HDPE) blends prepared using polyethylene glycol PEG as the processing aid and hydroxyapatite (HA) as the reinforcing filler were found to be highly processable using conventional melt blending technique. It was demonstrated that PEG reduced the melt viscosity of UHMWPE/HDPE blend significantly, thus improving the extrudab...

A new high speed and potentially economical method of creating a composite material and structures therefrom is tested. The method consists of spinning composite fibers from a melt blend of a thermoplastic with a liquid crystal polymer (LCP). Discontinuous fibrils of the LCP are formed in situ during the spinning process. These composite fibers are aligned and placed in a mold and heated to mel...