本研究旨在改善耐隆6(Nylon 6)在溫度0°C以下的耐衝擊特性，故將耐隆6以聚醚聚醯胺嵌段共聚物(PEBA；Pebax® Rnew)搭配苯乙烯馬來酸酐共聚物(SMA)相容化劑來進行相容化摻合增韌改質。所有的Nylon 6/SMA/PEBA聚摻物皆經由同軸雙螺桿押出機進行熔融混練加工製備而成。在本研究中分有兩組系列的Nylon 6/SMA/PEBA聚摻物來進行探討。其中ATN系列是研究不同類型的PEBA在固定含量(15wt%)下對Nylon 6/SMA/PEBA聚摻物的特性影響，另一HTN系列則是探討不同含量的PEBA40R53對Nylon 6/SMA/PEBA聚摻物的特性影響。再者亦探討PEBA中的軟鏈段PTMO含量對聚摻物增韌特性之影響，而所製備的聚摻物耐衝擊特性則在23°C及-20°C下來測得，其耐衝擊強度隨著PTMO含量的增加而增加，另拉伸及彎曲強度則隨著PTMO含量的增加而減少。從掃描式電子顯微鏡(SEM)照片中可以顯示PEBA次微米粒子分散良好地嵌入在Nylon 6基材上。然而由TGA的結果顯示這些聚摻物的熱穩定性並未有顯著的變化。此外，從流變測量的試驗結果揭示這些聚摻物皆呈現剪切稀化的行為，而相較Nylon 6 /PEBA聚摻物，其Nylon 6/SMA/PEBA聚摻物在添加1 wt%的SMA下，其表觀黏度的增加及熔融流動指數(MFI)的減少現象可以證實SMA可以增進Nylon 6與PEBA間的相容化性，另聚摻物的黏度隨著PEBA含量與溫度的增加而減小，並且熔融流動的活化能(Ea)則隨著剪切速率的增加而下降，同時較高的PTMO含量可導致較高的儲存模數(G’)並降低損失模數(G”)及複變黏度(η*)。因此Nylon 6/SMA/PEBA聚摻物中其PEBA的軟鏈段PTMO含量越高則對韌性的改善也越多。再者由DSC的結果顯示，Nylon 6的玻璃轉移溫度(Tg)會隨著PEBA含量的增加而下降，且PEBA之存在會影響到Nylon 6的結晶特性及γ晶相與 α晶相間之相對比例，而Nylon 6的結晶速率也會受到降溫速率與添加的PEBA含量所影響。此外，根據Avrami方程式計算出所有的Avrami指數(n)皆介於2到3之間，可以證實Nylon 6在Nylon 6/SMA/PEBA聚摻物中的結晶方式為擴散控制之結晶。

The purpose of this study is to improve the impact property of Nylon 6 at temperature below 0°C. In this study, Nylon 6 was toughened by blending with polyether block amide (PEBA; Pebax® Rnew) and compatibilized with poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) (SMA). All the blends were prepared via direct melt compounding using a co-rotating twin screw extruder. Two series of Nylon 6/SMA/PEBA blends were investigated in this study. The ATN series is to investigate the effect of polytetramethylene oxide (PTMO) content in PEBA on the properties of blends at a fixed content of 15 wt%. The HTN series is to study the effect of content of PEBA 40R53 on the properties of blends. The effect of the content of PTMO (soft segment) of PEBA on the toughening properties of blends was also investigated using the ATN series. The impact properties of the resulting blends were measured at 23°C and -20°C. With the increase of PTMO content, the impact strength increased, whereas the tensile and flexural properties decreased. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images revealed that the PEBA submicron particles were well-dispersed and embedded in the matrix (Nylon 6). The TGA results showed that the thermal stability of these blends was not affected significantly. In addition, the results of rheological measurements revealed that these blends exhibited shear-thinning behavior. Comparing with Nylon6/PEBA blends, the addition of 1 wt% of SMA increased the apparent viscosity and decreased the melt flow index (MFI), indicating that SMA can enhance the compatibility between Nylon6 and PEBA. In addition, the viscosity of the blends decreased with increasing PEBA content and temperature. The activation energy (Ea) of the melt flow decreased as the shear rate increased. Furthermore, higher PTMO content led to higher storage modulus (G’), lower loss modulus (G”) and complex viscosity (η*). The higher PTMO content in PEBA of Nylon 6/SMA/PEBA blends also improved the toughness. Moreover, the results of DSC showed that the glass transition temperature (Tg) of Nylon 6 decreased with the increase of PEBA content and the presence of PEBA affected the crystallization characteristics and the relative ratio of γ and α crystalline phases of Nylon 6. The crystallization rate of Nylon 6 was also affected by the cooling rate and the PEBA content. Moreover, based on the Avrami equation, all values of Avrami exponent (n) were between 2 and 3, indicating that the crystallization of Nylon 6 in the Nylon 6/SMA/PEBA blends was a diffusion-controlled crystallization.

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