Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Polyethylene terephthalate recycled and Nylon 6 recycled Blends

Abstract

In this study, recycled polyethylene terephthalate (RPET) was prepared by shredding post-consumer PET bottles into small flakes and subsequently melt-blended with recycled nylon 6 (RNylon 6), a waste material derived from the fishing net manufacturing industry, at concentrations ranging from 10 to 50 wt%. The blends were compounded using a twin-screw extruder and molded into test specimens via injection molding. The addition of 10 to 20 wt% RNylon 6 to the RPET matrix resulted in a reduction of impact strength by approximately 35.53% compared to neat RPET. However, the RPET/RNylon 6 blend with a 50/50 wt% ratio exhibited the highest impact strength. The incorporation of RNylon 6 also led to a decrease in tensile strength and elongation at break but an increase in modulus, relative to RPET. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis showed that the crystallization temperatures of all blends were 11.78–14.56 °C higher than that of pure RPET, while the melting temperatures slightly decreased with increasing RNylon 6 content. Furthermore, heat deflection temperature (HDT) testing indicated that the thermal resistance of the blends was lower than that of neat RPET.