Polyolefin Thermoplastic Elastomer Blends

Thermoplastic elastomers based on blends of polyolefins are an important family of engineering materials. Their importance arises from a combination of rubbery properties along with their thermoplastic nature in contrast to thermoset elastomers. The development of polyolefin thermoplastic elastomer blends follows somewhat that of thermoplastic elastomers based on block copolymers such as styrene-butadiene-styrene triblock copolymer and multisegmented polyurethane thermoplastic elastomers which were instrumental in showing the utility of thermoplastic processing methods. Polyoleflns are based on coordination catalysts that do not easily lend themselves to block or multisegmented copolymer synthesis. However, since polyolefins have many important attributes favorable to useful elastomeric systems, there was considerable incentive to produce thermoplastic elastomers based on simple α-olefins by some means. Low density, chemical stability, weather resistance, and ability to accept compounding ingredients without compromising physical properties are highly desirable. These considerations led to the development of polyolefin thermoplastic elastomer blends, and two types are now widely used: blends of ethylene-propylene rubber (EPM) with polypropylene (PP) and blends of EPDM and PP in which the rubber phase is highly crosslinked. This article reviews the nature of these blends. Both physical and Theological properties are very dependent on the morphology and crosslink density of the blend system. Moreover, the usefulness of practical systems depends extensively on compounding technology based on added plasticizers and fillers.