Enhancement effect of trimethylopropane trimethacrylate on electron beam irradiated acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)

Abstract

This paper reports the effect of electron beam irradiation on physico-mechanical properties of trimethylopropane trimethacrylate (TMPTMA) added acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) blends. The increasing of TMPTMA amount has gradually induced the gel content of all ABS samples. This is because incorporation of TMPTMA promotes formation of crosslinking networks in ABS matrix through releasing of monomer free radicals when irradiated. The results of hot set test also revealed that higher irradiation dosage required ≥ 6 phr TMPTMA to promote higher degree of crosslinking networks. The addition of TMPTMA also gradually improved the tensile strength and elongation at break of all ABS blends due to the existing of crosslinked chains. However, higher electron beam irradiation (≥ 200 kGy) has significantly reduced the tensile strength and elongation at break of all ABS samples due to chain-scissioning effect. The formation of crosslinking networks has induced the extendability of ABS matrix as evidenced in SEM observation. The crystallite size of deflection peak (110) also found to increase with low irradiation dosages.