Preparation and Characterizations of Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA)/Acrylate Rubber (ACM) Blend for Light Diffuser Applications

Abstract

Dynamically vulcanized PMMA/ACM (80 wt%/20 wt%) blend using DCP as a curing agent was prepared using internal mixer. The morphology, mechanical properties, optical properties, melt viscosity and die swell were characterized by using FE-SEM, tensile test, Izod impact test, dynamic mechanical analysis, ARES and capillary rheometer, respectively. The blends show a phase-separated morphology in which ACM are dispersed in PMMA matrix. Dynamically vulcanized blend exhibits higher mechanical properties, higher melt viscosity, and die swell as compared to simple blend. And, the dynamically vulcanized blend showed total transmittance of more than 75% and haze of higher than 90%, which enable it to find potential applications to fabricate an optical diffuser by extrusion process.