NOTE Morphology and Thermal Behavior of PA1010/LLDPE Blends using PE-g-AA as a Compatibilizer WULIN QIU, KANCHANG MAI, KUN FANG, ZHENGJUN LI, HANMIN ZENG Materials Science Institute, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou 510275, People’s Republic of China Received 9 April 1998; accepted 21 April 1998 Key words: morphology; polyamide1010; blends; compatibilizer INTRODUCTION The properties of blends of immiscible polymers are often closely related to the phase morphology. The mor- phology usually depends on parameters such as com- position, viscosity ratio, and interfacial tension of the component phase as well as processing conditions dur- ing mixing. 1–4 In recent years, there has been much interest in the blends of polyamides and polyolefins. When properly compatibilized, polyamide and polyole- fin blends can potentially offer a wide range of desir- able characteristics such as good chemical resistance, low water sorption, and reduced cost, and the mechan- ical properties depend strongly on the ratio of poly- amide to polyolefins. 5 Blends of PA6 and PA66 with polyolefins have been studied for many years. 6 However, very little work on the application and modification of PA1010 has been investigated. 7 Only in recent years PA1010 blends with PA6 8 and PP 9 were reported. Reported here are obser- vation on the morphology of PA1010/LLDPE blends. EXPERIMENTAL Materials and Specimen Preparation Granular polyamide1010 (PA1010) is a commercial product with  r 2.1–2.3, obtained from the Shanghai Celluloid Factory, and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) was obtained from the Qilu Petrochemical Corporation of China. Its trade name is DFDA-7042, and the acrylic acid-grafted polyethylene (PE-g-AA) was obtained commercially in Guangzhou. They were used as received after drying. Blending was performed in the melt state at 230°C with a XSS-300 Rheomix (Shanghai Light Machine Factory), the volume of the mixing head was 60 cm 3 , and mixing was continued for 8 min at 33 rpm. Scanning Electron Microscopy The morphology of the blends were obtained by scan- ning electron microscopy (SEM) using an Hitachi S-520 electron microscopy operated at 25 kV. Melt-pressed specimens were freeze fractured under liquid nitrogen, and sputter coated with gold before viewing. Differential Scanning Calorimetry DSC measurements were performed with a Perkin– Elmer model DSC-7 equipped with an intracooler. Dur- ing the thermal treatments and DSC Scanning, a dry nitrogen purge was provided throughout to prevent oxidation of the specimens. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Morphology Morphology of the blends were examined by SEM. In uncompatibilized blends, different components of the Correspondence to: Wulin Qiu, at his present address: De- partment of Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Tech- nology, Beijing 100081, P.R. China. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 71, 847– 853 (1999) © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCC 0021-8995/99/0905847-07 847