Study on the Morphology Evolution of PS/HDPE Blend During Uniaxial Elongational Flow

일축신장흐름에서의 PS/HDPE Blend의 모폴로지 변화에 관한 연구

Our study have aimed to identify the deformation and breakup mechanism of minor phase in polymer blends under uniaxial enlongational flow. Experimentally, we measured the transient elongational viscosity of PS/HDPE blends using the uniaxial elongational rheometer at two temperatures. And we observed the evolution of blend morphology with elongation time. Morphological change was observed by quenching the specimen after deformation. If the viscosity variation of PS was compared with that of HDPE at each temperature, PS showed larger temperature dependence than HDPE. At 155$^{\circ}C$, the dispersed phase of larger size were easily affected by affine deformation. The initial spherical shape changed to flat ellipsoid at first, then flat ellipsoid to bulbous shape, and bulbous to thin thread and its satellites. But dispersed phase of smaller size showed the change from sphere to ellipsoid. At 175$^{\circ}C$, the dispersed phase were mostly deformed from spherical shape to ellipsoid. As a result, the morphological change of dispersed phase in elongational deformation is affected by chain flexibility and viscosity ratio. We need to further study to make sure the mechanism of elongation of viscoelastic polymer blends.