Article pubs.acs.org/IECR
Cite This: Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Adapting a Capillary Rheometer for Research on Polymer Melt Interfaces Alex M. Jordan,†,‡ Patrick Lee,§ Christopher Thurber,†,∥ and Christopher W. Macosko*,† †
Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55454, United States Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G8, Canada ‡ Plastics Engineering, University of Wisconsin − Stout, Menomonie, Wisconsin 54751, United States ∥ The Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Michigan 48674, United States Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. Downloaded from pubs.acs.org by UNIV OF TEXAS AT EL PASO on 10/19/18. For personal use only.
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S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: Interfaces between immiscible polymers are widely known to be the origin of premature failure in multilayers and blends. Developing a small-scale, continuous method to fabricate interfaces from polymer melts with short contact times to simulate industrial coextrusion is critical for assessing new materials, polymeric systems, and processing conditions. Here we develop a miniature coextrusion die that can be fitted to a twin bore capillary rheometer for precise temperature and contact time control from 4.4 to 440 s. The design of the feedblock, stacker, manifold, and land zones was optimized via flow simulation software to allow bilayer coextrusion with minimal (
