Effects of Poly(ethylene--glycidyl methacrylate) on the Microstructure, Thermal, Rheological, and Mechanical Properties of Thermotropic Liquid Crystalline Polyester Blends.

In this study, a series of thermotropic liquid crystalline polyester (TLCP)-based blends containing 1-30 wt% poly(ethylene--glycidyl methacrylate) (PEGMA) were fabricated by masterbatch-assisted melt-compounding. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed a uniformly dispersed microfibrillar structure for the TLCP component in cryogenically-fractured blends, without any phase-separated domains. The FT-IR spectra showed that the carbonyl stretching bands of TLCP/PEGMA blends shifted to higher wavenumbers, suggesting the presence of specific interactions and/or grafting reactions between carboxyl/hydroxyl groups of TLCP and glycidyl methacrylate groups of PEGMA.