Effect of ionic additives on deformation behavior of bisphenol a polycarbonate

The deformation behavior of bisphenol A polycarbonate containing only a small amount of oligoionomeric additives in the range of a few parts per hundred parts of resin was examined. The impact strength of polycarbonate markedly decreased as the content of additive increased, and brittle fracture of polycarbonate was observed in tensile tests when the concentration of additive was above 2.5 phr. The ductile‐to‐brittle transition that was determined using a comparison of the critical shear yield stress and the critical craze stress appeared to exist in the range of 2.5–3.5 phr of additive. The measured entanglement density was also found to decrease significantly with the addition of a few parts per hundred parts of resin of additives, and the change of the dominant deformation mechanism from ductile to brittle failure was recognized as a result of the change of the entanglement density of polycarbonate. Therefore, it was concluded that the presence of a small amount of ionomeric additives caused the loss of entanglement density that induced transition of the deformation mechanism of polycarbonate from ductile to brittle failure and led to the corresponding deterioration of impact strength. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 39: 2635–2643, 2001