Thermoplastic compounds for commercial use are usually complex mixtures, including components such as antioxidants, heat stabilizers, processing aids, fillers, fibers, flame retardants and synergists, colorants and others. Optimizing properties or even just improving one property such as toughness is no simple task, because changing one component usually affects all properties simultaneously, and not always towards the desired direction.<br/>Complex systems are best handled using mathematical methods (DoE) to design the experimental plan. However, for a complex system consisting of many components (e.g. Polymer, glass fibers, flame retardant, synergist, dispersant, impact toughener), still hundreds of compounds need to be produced and tested, if the system is to be covered satisfactorily. The combination of experimental plans by DoE with high throughput screening methods (HTS) is the best way to handle this.<br/>As an example to show the power of the combination of DoE and HTS, we have mapped the landscpe of blends of PLA with petrochemical polymers with the target to meet the properties of petrochemical plastics as near as possible while keeping the content of PLA as a polymer from renewable ressources as high as possible. This includes mechanical properties, softening temperature, crystallinity, rate of crystallization, and stabilization against hydrolytic degradation. Approximately 1500 compositions were screened by producing injection molded samples and measuring them on our X-Plorator<sup>®</sup> High Throughput Screening System, grouped into 10 DoE plans for different targets. 15 Different thermoplastics, 13 different nucleating agents and synergists, 11 softeners and compatibilizers, and 6 different reinforcing fibers were were included into the screening. Predicitve models could be constructed from the results, and were used to match the PLA blends against selected thermoplastics. Figure 1a shows a comparison of properties of selected PLA blends vs. a commercial ABS grade. Figure 1b shows the stability of selected PLA blends vs. hydrolytic degradation (600h, 50°C, 96%rh).

High throughput screening and design of experiments: How to obtain predictive models for thermoplastic blends and compounds

256th National Meeting (2018)

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