Nylon-6/liquid natural rubber blends prepared via emulsion dispersion

Nylon-6 is widely used as engineering plastic because it is easy to process, high tensile properties, resistant to chemical and abrasion. However, poor impact strength at low temperature makes it limitedly used in some applications. Nylon-6/liquid natural rubber (LNR) blends were prepared via emulsion dispersion with composition of 100nylon-6/0LNR, 95nylon-6/5LNR, 90nylon-6/10LNR, 85nylon-6/15LNR, 80nylon-6/20LNR and 75nylon-6/25LNR. Nylon-6 was dissolved in a 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol and chloroform mixture (1:1 TFE/CHCl₃) and emulsified with hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HTAB). LNR was dispersed into the nylon-6 emulsion to form homogeneous nylon-6/LNR emulsions and the emulsions were de-emulsified with methanol, filtered and dried. High impact behaviour was achieved at 85nylon-6/15LNR composition. DSC thermogram indicated a single glass transition temperature, T g and SEM images showed no phase separation between blend components implying homogeneous blends were obtained.