Novel Microwave Irradiation Assisted Foaming of EPDM/PP Blend

In this work preparation of EPDM/PP blend and its foaming process by microwave for the first time was investigated. One of the most important applications of the foamed product is in the automotive industry. Using chemical blowing agent, foaming behavior of ethylene-propylene dine monomer (EPDM) and polypropylene (PP) blends with high EPDM content has been studied. The thermoplastic elastomer based on EPDM/PP was prepared via direct melt mixing in an internal mixer. Preparation of samples was considered by two methods .In the first, we used the foaming agent as received in mixing, but in the second method, we encapsulated both the foaming agent and the iron oxide as radiation absorber with urea formaldehyde thermoset. The foam density depended on irradiation time, irradiation power and foaming agent amount. The results showed that, when we used encapsulated foaming agent, a minimum density of 0.68 gr/cm3 was obtained. SEM was employed to show the effect of microwave irradiation on the blend foaming. Our result for the first time showed that polymer foaming process could be carried out in a microwave oven with some modification done in the formulation

کلیدواژه ها:

EPDM/PP ، Microwave ، Encapsulation ، Foaming agent ، Iron oxide