Impact-resistant polymer blends of olefin polymers, polyamides, and terpolymer compatibilizers

• US 5,317,059 A
• Filed: 07/09/1990
• Issued: 05/31/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ferro Corporation
• Original Assignee: Ferro Corporation
• Inventors: Bitsch, Bernard G. J., Chundury, Deenadayalu
• Primary Examiner(s): WOODWARD, ANA LUCRECIA
• Application Number:
  US07/550,733
• Time in Patent Office: 1,422 Days
• Field of Search: 525/179, 525/66
• US Class Current: 525/66
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 23/00 Compositions of homopolymers or copolymers of unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbons having only one carbon-to-carbon double bond; Compositions of derivatives of such polymers
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 23/02 not modified by chemical after-treatment
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 23/10 Homopolymers or copolymers of propene
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 2666/02 Organic macromolecular compounds, natural resins, waxes or and bituminous materials
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 2666/20 Macromolecular compounds having nitrogen in the main chain according to C08L75/00 - C08L79/00; Derivatives thereof
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 51/00 Compositions of graft polymers in which the grafted component is obtained by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds for ABS polymers C08L55/02; Compositions of derivatives of such polymers
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 53/00 Compositions of block copolymers containing at least one sequence of a polymer obtained by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds; Compositions of derivatives of such polymers
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 77/00 Compositions of polyamides obtained by reactions forming a carboxylic amide link in the main chain of polyhydrazides C08L79/06; of polyamideimides or polyamide acids C08L79/08; Compositions of derivatives of such polymers

Abstract

Blended polymer compositions are described which comprise

(I) from about 1% to about 98% by weight of at least one olefin polymer;

(II) from about 1% to about 98% by weight of at least one polyamide;

(III) an effective amount of a compatibilizing agent which comprises at least one terpolymer of an alpha-olefin, at least one acrylic ester, and an alpha,beta-olefinically unsaturated dicarboxylic acid reagent, or a glycidyl acrylate; and

(IV) from 0 to about 25% by weight of at least one auxiliary compatibilizing agent selected from the group consisting of

(IVa) at least one selectively hydrogenated block copolymer of a vinyl aromatic hydrocarbon and a conjugated diene to which has been grafted, an alpha,beta-olefinically unsaturated carboxylic acid reagent;

(IVb) at least one polymer which is the product of the reaction of an alpha-olefin polymer and an alpha,beta-olefinically unsaturated carboxylic acid reagent; and

(IVc) a mixture of (III) and (IVa) and/or (IVb) reacted in the presence of a radical initiator

provided that when the blended polymer contains one or more of the auxiliary compatibilizing agents (IVa) or (IVb), the blended polymer is free of other polymers of vinyl aromatic hydrocarbons.

Claims

1. A blended polymer composition comprising:

(I) from about 30% to about 90% by weight of at least one polypropylene or copolymer of ethylene and propylene;

(II) from about 5% to about 25% by weight of at least one polyamide;

(III) from about 0.1% to about 25% of a compatibilizing agent which comprises at least one terpolymer of an alpha-olefin, an acrylic ester, and an alpha,beta-olefinically unsaturated dicarboxylic acid reagent, or a glycidyl acrylate; and

(IV) from 0.1% to about 10% by weight of at least one auxiliary compatibilizing agent selected from at least one selectively hydrogenated block copolymer of a vinyl aromatic hydrocarbon and a conjugated diene to which has been grafted, an alpha,beta-olefinically unsaturated carboxylic acid reagent, provided that the blended polymer is free of other polymers of vinyl aromatic hydrocarbons.

2. The polymer composition of claim 1 comprising from about 70% to 90% by weight of (I).

3. The polymer composition of claim 1 wherein the polyamide (II) is selected from the group consisting of polyhexamethylene adipamide, polyhexamethylene sebacamide, polycaprolactam, polyhexamethylene isophthalamide, polyhexamethylene tere-co-isophthalamide, polytetramethylene adipamide and mixtures thereof.

4. The polymer composition of claim 1 wherein the terpolymer (III) comprises from about 60% to about 94% by weight of the olefin, from about 5% to about 40% by weight of the acrylic ester and from about 1% to about 10% by weight of the dicarboxylic acid reagent or the glycidyl acrylate.

5. The polymer composition of claim 1 wherein the alpha-olefin of (III) contains from 2 to about 6 carbon atoms.

6. The polymer composition of claim 1 wherein the alpha-olefin of (III) is ethylene, propylene or a mixture thereof.

7. The polymer composition of claim 1 wherein the acrylic ester of (III) is characterized by the formula

8. The polymer composition of claim 1 wherein the dicarboxylic acid reagent of (III) is maleic anhydride.

9. The polymer composition of claim 1 wherein the block copolymer of (IV) prior to hydrogenation is a styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer.

10. The polymer composition of claim 1 wherein the hydrogenated block copolymer of (IV) is a selectively hydrogenated block copolymer of the formula

11. The polymer composition of claim 10 wherein the unsaturation of block B is reduced to less than 5% of its original value and the average unsaturation of the hydrogenated block copolymer is reduced to less than 20% of its original value.

12. The polymer composition of claim 10 wherein A is a polymerized styrene block having a number average molecular weight of between about 4000 and about 60,000.

13. The polymer composition of claim 10 wherein B is a polymerized butadiene block having a number average molecular weight of between about 35,000 and about 150,000, and 35% to 50% of the condensed butadiene units have a 1,2-configuration.

14. The polymer composition of claim 1 wherein the hydrogenated block copolymer of (IVa) has been grafted with from about 0.2% to about 20% by weight of the carboxylic acid reagent.

15. The polymer composition of claim 1 wherein the carboxylic acid reagents of (IV) are dicarboxylic acids, anhydrides, imides, half esters, metal salts, or mixtures thereof.

16. The polymer composition of claim 15 wherein the carboxylic acid reagent is maleic acid.

17. A blended polymer composition comprising:

(I) from about 30% to about 90% by weight of at least one polypropylene or copolymer of ethylene and propylene;

(II) from about 5% to about 25% by weight of at least one polyamide;

(III) from about 0.1% to about 2.5% of a compatibilizing agent which comprises at least one terpolymer of an alpha-olefin, an acrylic ester, and an alpha,beta-olefinically unsaturated dicarboxylic acid reagent, or a glycidyl acrylate; and

(IV) from 0.1% to about 2.5% by weight of at least one auxiliary compatibilizing agent selected from at least one selectively hydrogenated styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene block copolymer to which has been grafted, an alpha,beta-olefinically unsaturated carboxylic acid reagent, provided that the blended polymer is free of other polymers of vinyl aromatic hydrocarbons.

18. A blended polymer composition comprising:

(I) from about 30% to about 90% by weight of at least one polypropylene or copolymer of ethylene and propylene;

(II) from about 5% to about 25% by weight of at least one polyamide;

(III) from about 0.1% to about 2.5% of a compatibilizing agent which comprises at least one terpolymer of an alpha-olefin, an acrylic ester, and an alpha,beta-olefinically unsaturated dicarboxylic acid reagent, or a glycidyl acrylate; and

(IV) from 0.1% to about 2.5% by weight of at least one auxiliary compatibilizing agent selected from at least one selectively hydrogenated block copolymer of a vinyl aromatic hydrocarbon and a conjugated diene to which has been grafted, an alpha,beta-olefinically unsaturated carboxylic acid reagent, provided that the blended polymer is free of other polymers of vinyl aromatic hydrocarbons.

19. A blended polymer composition which comprises:

(I) from about 70% to about 90% by weight of at least one polypropylene;

(II) from about 5% to about 25% by weight of at least one polyamide having a number average molecular weight of at least about 5000;

(III) from about 0.1 to about 25% by weight of at least one terpolymer of

(i) ethylene or propylene,

(ii) an acrylic ester, and

(iii) maleic acid, maleic anhydride or glycidyl acrylate; and

(IV) from about 0.1 to about 10% of at least one auxiliary compatibilizer selected from the group consisting of

(IVa) at least one selectively hydrogenated block copolymer of a vinyl aromatic hydrocarbon and an aliphatic conjugated diene to which has been grafted an alpha, beta-olefinically unsaturated monocarboxylic or dicarboxylic acid reagent

provided that the blended polymer is free of any other polymers of vinyl aromatic hydrocarbons.

20. The polymer composition of claim 19 wherein the polyamide (II) is selected from the group consisting of polyhexamethylene adipamide, polyhexamethylene sebacamide, polyhexamethylene tere-co-isophthalamide, polytetramethylene adipamide and mixtures thereof.

21. The polymer composition of claim 19 wherein the terpolymer (III) comprises from about 60% to about 94% by weight of ethylene, propylene or a mixture thereof, from about 5% to about 40% by weight of the acrylic ester and from about 1% to about 5% by weight of maleic acid or maleic anhydride.

22. The polymer composition of claim 19 wherein the block copolymer of (IVa) prior to hydrogenation is a styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer.

23. The polymer composition of claim 19 wherein the hydrogenated block copolymer of (IVa) is a selectively hydrogenated block copolymer of the formula

24. The polymer composition of claim 23 wherein the unsaturation of block B is reduced to less than 5% of its original value and the average unsaturation of the hydrogenated block copolymer is reduced to less than 20% of its original value.

25. The polymer composition of claim 23 wherein A is a polymerized styrene block having a number average molecular weight of between about 4000 and about 60,000.

26. The polymer composition of claim 23 wherein B is a polymerized butadiene block having a number average molecular weight of between about 35,000 and about 150,000, and 35% to 50% of the condensed butadiene units have a 1,2-configuration.

27. The polymer composition of claim 19 wherein the hydrogenated block copolymer of (IVa) has been grafted with from about 0.2% to about 20% by weight of the carboxylic acid reagent.