MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF GLASS FIBER REINFORCED BLENDS OF POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE WITH POLYCARBONATE

The aim of this work is to study the mechanical properties of composites based on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) modified with polycarbonate (PC) and reinforced with glass fiber (GF).The studies were conducted at PC concentrations of 10-50 wt.% and GF concentrations of 10-50 wt.%.Analysis performed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) suggests that these materials possess distinct morphologies at low (up to 20%) and high (above 20%) polycarbonate (PC) concentrations, which leads to differences in their mechanical properties.At low PC concentrations, PC forms a fine-dispersed phase with a developed interfacial surface, demonstrating partial compatibility with the amorphous phase of PET.At high PC concentrations, a tendency toward co-continuous morphology is observed, manifested by the growth and coalescence of particles of the dispersed PC phase.It was shown that the addition of 15 wt.%PC contributes to the improvement of mechanical characteristics: at GF content above 20 wt.%, the impact strength increases by 20-35% compared to PET/GF composites, which is due to more efficient energy dissipation at the PET/PC interphase boundary.