ABSTRACT
Blending and compounding is an effective and relative inexpensive way to obtain new materials for specific applications. Plastics compounding was defined by D. B. Todd as the production of a more useful product, a more uniform product, in a more usable form. Reactive compounding is a typical opportunity for reactive extrusion. Initially compounding was mainly performed between amorphous polymers and elastomers, resulting in a polymer matrix with small domains of elastomers. One purpose of functionalized polymers is the subsequent use in reactive blending. The polymers have to contain a functional group of sufficient concentration and reactivity. During melt mixing, the graft or block copolymer compatibilizers are generated through polymer-polymer grafting reactions. During the extrusion process the styrene polymerizes and it grafts to the polyethylene, forming a styrene-ethylene copolymer. Reactive compounding is a process where during the mixing of the different polymers compatibilization by a reaction occurs.
