Toughening plastics by crack growth inhibition through unidirectionally deformed soft inclusions

We demonstrate that without changing the filler content mechanical properties of commodity plastics with immiscible soft inclusions can be decisively enhanced, simply by pressure induced flow processing in the solid state. As an example, we have chosen acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), where shape and orientation of the soft fillers were changed by processing, resulting in an array of aligned and oriented nanosize deformed rubber domains. These deformed domains effectively controlled the propagation of cracks inside the solid matrix and were responsible for a multifold increase of tensile and impact toughness. Thus, appropriate processing allows manufacturing plastics with high impact resistance in accordance with engineering needs.