Abstract
Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS) was used to study the immiscibility of a polar nitrile rubber (NBR), blended with pure and waste, low and high density polyethylene (PE). The effect of weight percent of rubber added to PE was also investigated. It has been found that a complicated variation (positive and negative) in both free volume parameters (tau(3) & l(3)) from the values of the initial polymers forms an immiscible blend. These results are supported by a significant broadening in the free-volume hole size distributions. This has been interpreted in terms of interfacial spaces created between the boundaries of the two phases. Furthermore, a correlation was established between the free-volume parameters (tau(3) & l(3)) and the electrical and mechanical properties of the above-mentioned polymer blends as a function of weight percent of waste PE.