Abstract: The isothermal crystallization behavior of in-situ compatibilized polyamide 6/high density polyethylene (PA6/PE-HD) blends was studied using differential scanning calorimetry. The isothermal crystallization kinetics was analyzed using Avrami equation. The calculated Avrami index n was between 2.19 and 3.70, which demonstrated that the crystallization of PA6/PE-HD blends was growing three-dimensionally, which was confirmed by polarized optical microscopy observation. The equilibrium melting temperatures of PA6/PE-HD blends were obtained from Hoffman-Weeks method. With the addition of PE-HD, the size of PA6 spherulites became smaller obviously, which indicated that PE-HD played a role of heterogeneous nucleation.

Key words: high density polyethylene, polyamide 6, in-situ compatibilization, isothermal crystallization kinetics