Mechanism and properties of Super-Toughened ternary blends with unique ‘Tassel-Bundle’ morphology

Polyamide 6 (PA6) has been widely used in field of automotive, electrical-electronics. However, its intrinsic brittleness and sensitivity to notches necessitates improvements for more desirable overall performance. The super-toughened PA6/maleic anhydride modified styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene copolymer (mSEBS)/PTFE ternary blends (PA6/mSEBS/PTFE) were designed and carefully investigated. Surprisingly, it is found that the PA6 ternary blends display much better elongation at break by 180 %, which is 6 times higher than normal PA6/mSEBS binary blend. The maximum notched Izod and Charpy impact strength for PA6/mSEBS20/PTFE ternary blend were 98 kJ/m2 and 104 kJ/m2, respectively, while only 35 kJ/m2 for PA6/mSEBS20 binary blends. It is found in mechanism investigation that a novel “tassel-bundle” (TB) network morphology is observed, different from the conventional sea-island morphology observed in PA6/mSEBS binary blends. The forming mechanism of novel “tassel-bundle” structure, and the influence of PTFE on morphology formation and mechanical properties of (PA6/mSEBS/PTFE ternary blends will be investigated respectively