Mutual influence of the morphology and capillary rheological properties in nylon/glass-fiber/liquid-crystalline-polymer blends

Nylon-6/glass-fiber (GF)/liquid-crystalline-polymer (LCP) ternary blends with different viscosity ratios were prepared with three kinds of nylon-6 with different viscosities as matrices. The rheological behaviors of these blends were characterized with capillary rheometry. The morphology was observed with scanning electron microscopy and polarizing optical microscopy. This study showed that although LCP did not fibrillate in binary nylon-6/LCP blends, LCP fibrillated to a large aspect ratio in some ternary blends after GF was added. The addition of 5 wt % LCP significantly reduced the melt viscosity of nylon-6/GF blends to such an extent that some nylon-6/ GF/LCP blends had quite low viscosities, not only lower than those of neat resins and nylon-6/GF blends but also lower than those of corresponding nylon-6/LCP blends. The mutual influence of the morphology and rheological properties was examined. The great reduction of the melt viscosity was considered the result of LCP fibrillation. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.