Processability and properties of novel glass-polymer melt blends

Dynamic mechanical analysis was used to study the viscoelastic properties of two novel highly filled phosphate glass-polymer melt blends to accelerate efforts to optimize their melt processing. The melt of one blend was thermally stable while that of the other blend was not, as evidenced by modulus growth over time of the latter. The frequency dependencies of storage and loss moduli for both blends at 400 degrees C showed evidence of incomplete relaxation. Recrystallization, formation of some fibrillar structures within the polymer phase during flow, transesterification of the polymer phase, or interactions between the polymer and glass are thought to be responsible for the observed differences between the viscoelastic properties of the two blends.