Thermal stability of blends of nylon 6 with polyolefins that contain acrylic acid

The objective of the present work was to study the effect of interfacial interactions on the thermal stability of blends of Nylon 6 with: polypropylene (iPP), polypropylene grafted with 6% by weight acrylic acid (iPP-AA), and a random copolymer of ethylene and acrylic acid with 8% by weight acrylic acid (PE-AA). Thermogravimetrical analysis (TGA) was performed on all the samples and both qualitative and quantitative analysis were made in order to evaluate the thermal stability of the materials under investigation. The results indicate that when there are strong intermolecular interactions between the polymers to be mixed (and therefore strong interfacial activity), the thermal stability in the blends can be increased with respect to the values expected in view of a simple additive rule of mixing and synergistic effects can be produced. © 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.