Nanostructured Thermoplastic Vulcanizates by Selectively Cross-Linking a Thermoplastic Blend with Similar Chemical Structures

Ethylene vinyl acetate rubber (vinyl acetate (VA) content = 50 wt %) (EVM) and ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (VA content < 50 wt %) (EVA) are polymers with a very similar chemical structure. In this Study, a novel thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) based on EVM/EVA28 (VA content = 28 Wt %) blend has been Successfully fabricated by dynamic vulcanization due to the selective cross linking of EVM. The morphologies and properties of the TPVs have been investigated. It was found that the cross linked EVM phase and the thermoplastic EVA28 phase form a perfect cocontinuous structure with the rubber phase size Of about 100 nm. The fabricated TPV exhibits not only excellent stretchability (>900% elongation at break), nice elasticity (only about 19% remnant strain at 100% stretching), and good flexibility but also superior oil resistance.