THERMAL PROTECTION OF POLYAMIDE 6/ACRYLONITRILE-BUTADIENE RUBBER THERMOPLASTIC-VULCANIZATES: INFLUENCE OF TYPE AND CONTENT ON BLEND PROPERTIES

Polyamide 6 (PA6)/NBR blends are interesting because of their supposed properties at elevated temperatures. The blend, however, has a critical problem in terms of processing stability, as a result of the thermal degradation of the NBR phase. We evaluate a system of dissimilar addition of antioxidant in each phase (a combination of Irganox (R)/Irgafos (R) for the PA phase, and Naugard 445 (R) for the NBR phase) and study the influence of these antioxidants on the properties of the blend. The evaluation was performed through tensile strength, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis, and X-ray diffraction analysis. The influence of the antioxidant system on the crystallization process of the PA phase was evaluated through isothermal DSC analysis. Results showed the best combination of antioxidant addition in master batches and during processing.