Recycling of ABS and PC from electrical and electronic waste. Effect of miscibility and previous degradation on final performance of industrial blends

The aim of this work, within the framework of polymer recycling, is to upgrade waste from electrical and electronic equipment. Blends of the two major residues were prepared via a melt blending process. These are ABS consisting of a SAN thermoplastic matrix with a dispersed elastomeric (polybutadiene rubber) component and polycarbonate (PC). The effect of partial miscibility and previous degradation levels was investigated. Mechanical characterization of ABS/PC systems was carried out to determine the optimum composition range. Previous degradation levels of the two wastes were investigated by FTIR and little degradation was found on ABS due to the presence of a polybutadiene rubber which is more sensitive to thermo-oxidative processes but no significant degradation was found on PC. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) tests demonstrated certain miscibility between the two components by identifying two glass transition temperatures. This partial miscibility, together with the small degradation of the elastomeric component, contributes to a low interaction promoting a decrease on mechanical performance. Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) showed the system morphology and certain lack of adherence along SAN/polybutadiene interface related to degradation of polybutadiene spheres which act as stress concentrators. The use of the equivalent box model (EBM) allowed to quantify the interaction level by determining an interaction/adherence parameter “A”, which turned to be lower than 1 and corroborated the lack of interaction.