Rubber Toughened Polyamide 6/High Density Polyethylene/HDPE-g-MAH Nanocomposites with Ethylene Vinyl Acetate

This paper study the effective toughening of polymer nanocomposites in order to have a balance stiffness, strength and toughness by incorporation of EVA as impact modifier and organoclay as a filler. In this research, rubber toughened PA6/HDPE blends nanocomposites were blended with 1 to 5 phr of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) with incorporation of 5wt% organoclay (MMT) in the presence of HDPE-g-MAH as compatibilizer. The mechanical properties of the samples such as tensile test and tensile modulus were measured by universal tensile machine whiles impact strength and hardness was measured using Izod Impact Tester and Rockwell hardness tester. The composites were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer and Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA). The results exhibited enhancement of mechanical properties with incorporation of 1 phr EVA but slightly decreased for further addition of EVA content. FTIR analysis showed that both samples with and without EVA presented almost the same trend. TGA stability exhibit samples containing EVA showed lower stability than sample with EVA. Conversely, addition of EVA greatly increases the impact strength as well as improved the toughness of the composites.