Mechanical properties of hydroxyl functionalized chlorinated polyethylene prepared by in situ chlorinating graft copolymerization

A graft copolymer composed of poly (2-hydroxy ethyl acrylate) (PHEA) as branched chains and chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) as backbone, CPE-cg-HEA, was synthesized by in situ chlorinating graft copolymerization (ISCGC). The polymer has special molecular structure with short graft chains and abundant branched points. The mechanical properties of CPE-cg-HEA were studied by tensile testing, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The morphologies of tensile fractured surfaces for CPE and CPE-cg-HEA were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The testing results indicated the mechanical properties of the in situ chlorinating graft copolymers have greatly improved compared with CPE with about the same chlorine content. Particularly, there was a broad plateau on the stress–strain curve of the graft copolymer, which meant a high elastic-like deformation.