ABSTRACT
The present investigation is aimed to prepare blends comprising of Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM) and Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) with the help of two roll mill by melt blending process at various blend ratios. The effect of LLDPE on mechanical and thermal properties of the developed blends has been investigated. The results of mechanical properties reveal that there is significant increase in tensile strength, hardness and puncture resistance with increase of LLDPE content in EPDM. The elongation at break for the blend increases with increasing EPDM content. The reason might be attributed to chemical cross linking of EPDM which restricts the mobility of the polymer chains. The reduction in tensile property, hardness and puncture resistance at higher content of EPDM might be because of rubbery nature of EPDM. In addition, it is also observed that the increase of LLDPE content in EPDM matrix improves thermal stability of the blends. The improvement in thermal properties may be because of the increased chemical cross-linking into blends. Morphological studies of developed blends have been performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). FTIR study has also been carried out to study the structure property relationship of the blends.
