Mechanical Properties and Morphology of Polypropylene/Poly(ethylene-co-octene) Blends

The polypropylene (PP)/poly(ethylene-co-octene) (POE) blends was prepared by means of a twin screw extruder in a range of temperature from 185 to 195 °C. The mechanical properties including tensile, flexural and impact of the PP/POE blends were measured at room temperature to identify the effect of the POE content on the mechanical properties. It was found that the Young’s modulus, tensile strength and tensile elongation at break decreased nonlinearly with increasing the POE weight fraction. While the V-notched and unnotched impact fracture strength increased nonlinearly with an increase of the POE weight fraction. The flexural modulus and strength decreased roughly linearly with increasing the POE weight fraction. Furthermore, the impact fracture surface of the blends was observed by using a scanning electronic microscope and the toughening mechanisms were discussed.