Lifetime Estimate of Various Polymeric Hybrid Blend Composites Corroborated with their Mechanical Testing, FTIR and Colour Spectroscopy

This paper discusses the performance of 3 compositions; selected from the pool of certain hybrid blends of Polyamide 12 : HDPE, Hytrel : Polytrimethylene Terephthalate (PTT), and Wollastonite reinforced Hytrel : HDPE. These compositions display high Shore D & Scratch hardness, and have been compared to the most popular choice for electrical cable jacketing i.e. High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). High hardness blends of Hytrel : PTT (60:40), Polyamide 12 : HDPE (20:80+5% MA-g-PE), and 4% GPTMS treated 15 wt. % Wollastonite composite in Hytrel : HDPE (60:40+5% PE-BA-GMA); have been tested for important weathering performance properties, required for wires and cables. These compositions have been subjected to QUV accelerated weathering, Soil burial testing, and High temperature ageing, to elucidate weathering properties. Further, these samples have been tested for their various mechanical properties, like tensile strength and roughness after exposure. Changes in chemical structure as a result of the weathering studies have been studied using ATR – FTIR, and changes in colour of the specimens have been noted using colour spectrophotometry. It is seen that PA 12 based samples show best resistance to UV degradation, soil burial weathering, and high temperature oxidation. Using Arrhenius equation, and including all three modes of degradation carried out at different temperatures, the time taken for the samples to reach 50% of their initial tensile strength have been determined.