Performance of Polypropylene Blended with Different Grades of mPE

Blending polypropylene (PP) with an elastomeric phase such as EPDM is often performed in order to increase its fracture toughness. With the availability of metallocene polymerized polyethylene (mPE), a new modifier with interesting mechanical properties can be chosen for blending with PP. The influence of mPE grades in PP/mPE blends on their rheological, thermal and mechanical properties was investigated in this research. Special emphasis is placed on the low temperature toughness of the blends. The result shows that the mPE grade with a high octene content has the lowest glass transition temperature (T _g ) and highest toughening effect for PP.