Influence of third component on mechanical properties and thermal stability of polypropylene/(regenerated polyurethane) blends

Abstract The possibility of polypropylene (PP) modification by regenerated polyurethane (PU), obtained after partial thermochemical decomposition of waste PU, has been studied. The degradation product was a thermoplastic mixture, applicable for reuse without any purification and fractionation. It was proved that regenerated PU could be reused as an effective polymeric plasticizer for PP and that the addition of regenerated PU did not decrease the thermal stability of PP. In order to improve further the elongation at break of PP modified by regenerated PU, a third component was added to the PP/(regenerated PU) blend. The influence of the third component on the mechanical properties and thermal stability of the blends was evaluated by using a universal testing machine (UTM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The data showed that the elongations of PP/(regenerated PU) blends with styrene‐ethylene‐butylene‐styrene polymer (SEBS) were obviously better than those of the PP/(regenerated PU) blend without the third component and with PP‐ g ‐MA or SEBS‐ g ‐MA (MA = maleic anhydride). In addition, the thermal stability of PP/(regenerated PU) blends with a third component was almost same as that of the PP/(regenerated PU) blend without a third component. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 2008. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers.