Molecular Design of Multicomponent Polymer Systems. 8. New Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene-like Resins from Styrene-Acrylonitrile-Based Mechanical Blends

One of the main applications of polymer blends is in the manufacture of impact-resistant materials, since phase separation is an essential feature for the rubber toughening of brittle plastics. In acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) resins, the rubbery phase usually consists of polybutadiene, nitrile rubber, or poly(styrene-co-butadiene) rubber (SBR). The largest part of the resins now manufactured is prepared by a graft copolymerization process of styrene and acrylonitrile in the presence of a preformed rubber.1Although mechanical blending remains certainly a very attractive and more versatile way toward these polyblends, it has important deficiencies that cause it to be less efficient than the copolymerization techniques. © 1986, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.