Abstract:

In this work， maleic anhydride （MAH） was first grafted onto polyethylene wax （PEW） using xylene （PX） as a solvent， benzoyl peroxide （BPO） as an initiator， resulting in the formation of a PEW⁃g⁃MAH grafting copolymer. The resultant grafting copolymer then slowly added to acetone to perform precipitation with acetone as a precipitant. The PEW⁃g⁃MAH micropowders were obtained from the above mixture through suction filtration， drying， grinding， and screening. The structure of the obtained product was characterized by Fourier⁃transform infrared spectroscopy and laser diffraction particle⁃size analyzer， and its adhesion was measured using an adhesion tester. The optimum reaction conditions were explored through investigating single factor and orthogonal design experiments. The results indicated that the optimal reaction parameters were determined to be a PEW amount of 10 g， an MAH amount of 0.6 g， a reaction temperature of 110 °C， an initiator amount of 0.2 g， and a reaction time of 4 h. Under this condition， MAH achieve the highest grafting efficiency of 58.57 % together with a grafting rate of 3.51 %， an average particle size of 15.54 µm， and adhesion of grade 0. The PEW⁃g⁃MAH micropowders exhibit great potential for the application in powder coatings.

Key words: polyethylene wax, micropowder, powder coating, grafting rate, adhesion