Double edge notched tensile testing of PET/ PA blends

Abstract Polyethilene Terephtalate, PET, is a versatile thermoplastic commodity widely used in the food and pharmaceutic industries to produce packaging containers. In spite of the recognized advantages, room for improvement, especially in the barrier properties against oxygen transport, require further development. Blending with other polymers is a standard way to modify properties of a base resin, and, in this sense, blending PET with Polyamide, PA, has this potential. Blending of dissimilar polymers however, always raise questions about compatibility and optimal content of the added resin concerning mechanical properties. The present work reports preliminary results of prospecting films of PET and PA, using two PA resins, standard PA 6.6 and PA 6T6I (PA modified with a terephtalate group) in four different contents (2.5, 5, 10 and 20 weight \%) in the form of Double Edge Notched Tensile (DENT) samples. Results show that resin PA 6T6I is more compatible with PET, as expected, but the strength is only slightly affected in the added range of both resins.