Melt rheology of plasticized poly(vinyl chloride)/epoxidized natural rubber miscible blends

Abstract

Abstract A study of the melt rheological behavior of miscible blends of plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) and epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) was carried out with a capillary rheometer. Melt viscosity and melt elasticity behavior was determined and surface characteristics of the extrudate was examined by using a scanning electron microscope. Melt viscosity of plasticized PVC increased with ENR content at higher processing temperatures. The melt elasticity parameters such as die swell ratio, principal normal stress difference, and recoverable shear strain at a particular shear stress increased with temperature up to a 50 wt % composition of ENR in blends. For high ENR blends the die swell ratio and recoverable shear strain decreased with temperature, and the principal normal stress difference and elastic shear modulus remained independent of temperature for all values of shear stress. It was noted that the nature of deformation in the surface layer was linear for a smooth extrudate and nonlinear for a distorted extrudate. Moreover, recoverable shear strain was found to have a correlation with the extrudate distortion of the melts.