Synergistic Toughening of Polypropylene Alloys Using Core-Shell High-density Polyethylene/Ethylene-Propylene Rubber and Isoprene Rubber Composite Rubber Particles

Hai-Bo Wang; Ang-Xuan Wu; Jia-Hao Shen; Xiao-Tian Nan; Feng-Bo Zhu; Wen-Wen Yu; Qiang Zheng

doi:10.1007/s10118-026-3771-x

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Synergistic Toughening of Polypropylene Alloys Using Core-Shell High-density Polyethylene/Ethylene-Propylene Rubber and Isoprene Rubber Composite Rubber Particles

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2026-08-28

- Synergistic Toughening of Polypropylene Alloys Using Core-Shell High-density Polyethylene/Ethylene-Propylene Rubber and Isoprene Rubber Composite Rubber Particles
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 44, Pages: 1-15(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  a.College of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China
  b.School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  c.Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
- Author bio：
  
  yuwenwen@tyut.edu.cn (W.W.Y.)
  zhengqiang@tyut.edu.cn (Q.Z.)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-026-3771-x
  CLC：
- Received：31 March 2026，
  
  Accepted：04 June 2026，
  
  Online First：28 August 2026，
  
  Published：2026-07
- Accepted：
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Wang, H. B.; Wu, A. X.; Shen, J. H.; Nan, X. T.; Zhu, F. B.; Yu, W. W.; Zheng, Q. Synergistic toughening of polypropylene alloys using core-shell high-density polyethylene/ethylene-propylene rubber and isoprene rubber composite rubber particles. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3771-x

Hai-Bo Wang, Ang-Xuan Wu, Jia-Hao Shen, et al. Synergistic Toughening of Polypropylene Alloys Using Core-Shell High-density Polyethylene/Ethylene-Propylene Rubber and Isoprene Rubber Composite Rubber Particles[J/OL]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 441-15.
Wang, H. B.; Wu, A. X.; Shen, J. H.; Nan, X. T.; Zhu, F. B.; Yu, W. W.; Zheng, Q. Synergistic toughening of polypropylene alloys using core-shell high-density polyethylene/ethylene-propylene rubber and isoprene rubber composite rubber particles. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3771-x DOI：

Hai-Bo Wang, Ang-Xuan Wu, Jia-Hao Shen, et al. Synergistic Toughening of Polypropylene Alloys Using Core-Shell High-density Polyethylene/Ethylene-Propylene Rubber and Isoprene Rubber Composite Rubber Particles[J/OL]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 441-15. DOI： 10.1007/s10118-026-3771-x.

摘要

Abstract

Polypropylene (PP) can be toughened by adding elastomers or constructing core-shell structures

although the toughening efficiency of both approaches is limited. Herein

a synergistic dual-phase toughening method is proposed by introducing high-density polyethylene (HDPE) into ethylene-propylene rubber (EPR) and isoprene rubber (IR) composite systems. This resulted in an HDPE@EPR core-shell particle structure alongside finely dispersed IR particles. Interfacial tension promotes adhesion between the EPR shell and IR

concurrently reducing the size of the IR domains and interparticle spacing of the rubber phase. By optimizing the HDPE content

a loading of 15 phr resulted in a well-defined core-shell morphology with minimized IR domains. This enables the fabrication of a PP alloy exhibiting exceptional low-temperature impact toughness (35.8 kJ/m

at –20 °C) and an optimal strength-toughness balance. However

surpassing the optimal HDPE content triggers IR particle aggregation

because the thinned EPR shell fails to fully encapsulate the HDPE core

while interfacial tension-driven repulsion facilitates this process. Finite-element simulation results demonstrated a significant synergistic toughening effect between the HDPE@EPR core-shell particles and IR particles. Under low-temperature impact loading

stress and strain are concentrated at the core-shell interface and around the IR particles

which effectively inhibits rapid crack propagation

thereby significantly enhancing the low-temperature toughness of the material. This dual-dispersed phase design strategy offers a promising pathway for the development of high-performance PP composites for demanding low-temperature applications.

关键词

Keywords

references

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