Abstract
The compatibilisation of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and poly(ethylene–covinyl acetate) (EVA) blends with maleic-anhydride grafted poly[styrene-b-(ethylene-co-butylene)-b-styrene] (SEBS-g-MA) triblock copolymer has been investigated. The introduction of SEBS-g-MA resulted in an improvement in the mechanical properties of the blends with a reduction in damping characteristics, indicating the presence of efficient interfacial bonding. The optimum loading of SEBS-g-MA for SBR/EVA blends, has been found to be 6 phr. The better mechanical performance has been observed to be achieved for the compatibilised blends with DCP as curing agent. The results have been complemented by the studies using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It has also been found that the compatibilisation with SEBS-g-MA improved the thermal ageing characteristics of SBR/EVA systems.
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