Effect of Experimental Conditions on the Grafting of Maleic Anhydride onto Polyethylene in Extruders

This work investigates the effect of the operating conditions (set temperature and prescribed throughput) on the evolution of the MA grafted content on high density polyethylene along a co-rotating twin screw extruder. Samples were quickly removed from the extruder at relevant axial locations, quenched and subsequently characterized off-line. While grafting was monitored by FTIR, the residual peroxide was determined by gas chromatography. The results show a good correlation between residual peroxide and MA grafted content.