Properties of Recycled-Polyethylene Terephthalate/Polycarbonate Blend Fabricated by Vented Barrel Injection Molding

In this research, recycled-polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polycarbonate (RPET/PC) blends fabricated by vented barrel injection molding were presented to better understand the effect of devolatilization during molding process. The effect of dried pellets, non-dried pellets, using an opened-vented hole, and using a closed-vented hole on the miscibility, morphology, thermal properties and mechanical properties of RPET/PC blends was investigated. The results indicated that no drying decreases dispersion, thermal properties, and mechanical properties of RPET/PC blends due to hydrolysis degradation of recycled-PET during the injection molding process. Using the venting system with non-dried RPET/PC blends partially improves dispersion, thermal properties and molecular weight of RPET/PC blends processed without drying, giving results that are similar to those processed with drying. Regarding the flexural properties, using the venting system without drying prevents the flexural properties from decreasing in RPET/PC blends, if the amount of RPET is less than 75 wt%. When the content of RPET is over 75 wt%, using the venting system does not eliminate the decrease in flexural properties of RPET/PC blends. When the venting system is applied to non-dried RPET, despite hydrolysis degradation of RPET not being completely eliminated, the damaging effects are nonetheless reduced compared with those samples processed without the venting system. As a result, vented barrel injection molding hardly prevents non-dried RPET/PC blends from having reduced flexural properties when the content of RPET is greater than 75 wt%.

The Determination of Interfacial Shear Strength in Short Fiber Reinforced Poly Ethylene Terephthalate by Kelly-Tyson Theory

The interfacial shear strength value measuring by the modified Kelly-Tyson equation method was studied the measurement accuracy. The measuring accuracy by using the modified Kelly-Tyson equation method is compared to the nano-indentation testing method. The results and an influential factor are described. An error in the modified Kelly-Tyson equation is verified to avoid the incorrect measurement when the interfacial shear strength was measured by the modified Kelly-Tyson equation. To study the different interfacial shear strength behavior, short fiber reinforced PET composites were fabricated. In this study, an advance fabricating technique for short fiber reinforced composite as direct fiber feeding process is conducted to fabricate GF/recycled PET for studying the interfacial shear strength. The result indicates that the modified Kelly-Tyson equation method accurately provides the accurate interfacial shear strength value, if it is conducted with the sample without a horizontally aligned fiber. So the high fiber loading content sample should be avoided to get the more accuracy result. The large horizontally aligned fiber area into specimens extremely resulted in the incorrect measurement of the interfacial shear strength value by the modified Kelly-Tyson equation method. The fiber agglomeration factor and the sensitively horizontally aligned fiber area must be considered its influence on the measuring for improving the equation effectiveness.