SGER: Feasibility of Reactive Extrusion of Nanostructured Polymer Blends

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ABSTRACTPI: Joshua U. Otaigbe Institution: Iowa State University Proposal Number: 0122925This is a Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) to enable the principal investigator (PI) to explore the feasibility of reactive extrusion based on the fast anionic ring-opening polymerization of cyclic amides in a matrix of a commercial polymer such as polypropylene (PP), to yield a nanostructured PP/polyamide 6 blend with unique properties. "Nanostructured" is used because the dispersion of one polymer phase in the other is below 100 nanometers. The research is to demonstrate proof of concept of generating these structures in reactive extrusion using ring-opening polymerization of cyclic amides. The potential versatility of the nanostructures polymer blends will make them useful in applications such as optics, drug delivery, tissue engineering and permeable membranes for separation phenomena.Blending of polymers is one method used to obtain new polymeric materials. Over 30% of commercial polymers used worldwide are polymer bends or alloys. An example is acrylonitrile copolymer and polybudatiene grafted styrene-acrylontitrile copolymer. The evolution of morphology during melt blending of a polymer blend is poorly understood and the ability to predict this morphological evolution is a goal of this project.