Valorisation of waste polyethylene by blending with ethylene-vinyl acetate and incorporation of a new type of compatibilizer

Nowadays polyethylene is one of the polymers produced in the greatest volume, therefore, parallelly the amount of generated waste polyethylene (w-HDPE) significant as well. Valorisation and recycling of w-HDPE can be realized by blending with different types of polymers and/or elastomers in order to result in thermoplastic elastomer end-product for example. One potential candidate can be ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) nevertheless interfacial interaction between between w-HDPE and EVA is inadequate reflected in deterioration of mechanical properties of the blend in spite of the fact that they possess favourable mechanical properties themselves and they may complement each other. For the purpose of boosting of interfacial interactions between these two polymers experimental olefin-maleic-anhydride based additives have been incorporated in the blends after optimization of the processing temperature. Impact and tensile tests have been carried out in our research work besides microscopy measurements and investigation of the effects of additive structure by FT-IR and rheology.