Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.53, No.37, 14544-14551, 2014
Structure and Properties of Maleic Anhydride Capped Poly(propylene carbonate) Produced by Reactive Extrusion and Effect of Resistance Time on Reaction Efficiency
Poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) is an environmental friendly thermoplastic aliphatic polycarbonate. In order to improve its thermal and mechanical properties, PPC end-capped with maleic anhydride (PPC-MA) was prepared by reactive extrusion. Structure, thermal, and mechanical properties and rheological behavior of PPC-MA were investigated. FTIR results show that PPC was successfully end-capped with MA. It revealed that tensile strength, 596 weight loss temperatures, storage modulus, loss modulus, and complex viscosity were dependent on End-Capped Efficiency (ECE) and molecular weight of PPC-MA. When the MA content ranged from 0.5 to 1 phr, ECE and molecular weight increased. The decreases of ECE and molecular weight occurred as the MA content increased to 3 phr. The rheological responses of PPC-MA were used to characterize the mechanism of ECE with different MA content. When the MA content increased, shear viscosity of PPC-MA decreased. As a result, the residence time in reactive extrusion decreased and lead to the reduction of ECE.