Synthesis of Polypropylene-Polystyrene Copolymer via Ultrasonic Irradiation-Initiated Polymerization of Styrene in Polypropylene Solution

Polystyrenes(PS) were grafted onto polypropylene(PP) in the PP solution by ultrasonic irradiation-initiated polymerization of styrene. The resulting products consisted of mixtures of homopolymers and PP-PS copolymer because of the homopolymerization of styrene itself and copolymerization with PP. The dependency of the designated polymerization on sonication times was investigated to monitor the evolution lion of the copolymerization. Formation of the PP-PS copolymer was confirmed by FTIR analysis of the reaction products after a proper separation procedure of free PS and PP-PS copolymer. It was found that the tendency for the formation of PP-PS copolymer was closely related with the phase behavior of the PP/styrene mixture which was also influenced by sonication time. In order to verify the effectiveness of the PP-PS copolymer as a compatibilizer for PP/PS blend, melt mixing of PP/PS/PP-PS was performed in a batch mixer. During the mixing, the average torque was higher for the blend containing PP-PS copolymer influencing compatibilization. In accordance with the results from FRIR analysis and torque measurement, the PS domain size remarkably decreased in the PP/PS/PP-PS blend.