Organic rubber tougheners are routinely used to improve the toughness of polymeric materials including thermoplastics and thermoset. There are several types of rubber tougheners including reactive rubbers, block copolymers, and core-shell modifiers. All of these can improve toughness because the dispersed rubber domain absorbs the impact energy. Core-shell tougheners are made from emulsion polymerization and isolated into powder, then often melt processed into a thermoplastic resin like PVC or PC. During the extrusion process, high temperature and high shear help to break down the powder particles into primary core-shell particles. On the other hand, liquid thermoset applications tend to use reactive rubber due to their easy dispersion under low temperature and low shear conditions. An innovative core-shell modifier was invented to enable core-shell modifiers to also be dispersed in low shear, low temperature environments. This new toughener improves productivity with faster and more homogeneous dispersion that leads to time and energy savings during the manufacturing process compared to traditional core-shell modifiers. The thermoset formulations containing the innovative core-shell modifiers also benefit from enhanced toughness properties along with minimal loss of modulus and glass transition temperature.

Core-shell tougheners with good dispersion in liquid resins

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