New Blend Morphologies for Low Pressure Moulding Compounds
June 4th, 1999
Paper to the Polymer Processing Society, 15th International Meeting, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Holland
S F Bush with M Esfandeh and J M Methven
Abstract
This paper describes the morphology of a new class of thermosetting polymer blends. The blends are now used commercially in the manufacture of sheet moulding compounds (SMC) where they exhibit important advantages over the conventional systems. Previous reports from this laboratory have described a model for blend morphology of these compounds in which a limited and constrained crystallisation of an additive occurs in distributed microcrystalline domains connected severally by chains of additive threading their way through a liquid reactive base resin. This paper puts the model of the morphology on secure physical foundations. Hot stage microscopy and Wide Angle X-ray scattering techniques are used to investigate the morphology changes of the blend as a result of interaction between blend components.