Blends of biorenewable polyamides and methods of making the same
The invention discloses a method to produce a blended polymer by mixing polyamide 11 and polyamide 6, 10. The method may be utilize melt mixing or may utilize blended solutions. The invention also includes a blended polymer, wherein the blended polymer is produced from polyamide 11 and polyamide 6,10.
1. A method for producing a blended polyamide material, comprising:
melting a polyamide 6, 10 to produce a melted polyamide 6, 10;
adding a polyamide 11 to the melted polyamide 6, 10 to produce a melted polyamide mixture;
adding at least one stabilization agent to the melted polyamide mixture to produce a melted stabilized polyamide mixture; and
evaporating the at least one stabilization agent to produce the blended polyamide material, wherein the blended polyamide material is thermodynamically miscible.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the blended polyamide material comprises between about 1 wt % to about 65 wt % of polyamide 6, 10.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the blended polyamide material comprises between about 35 wt % to about 99 wt % of polyamide 11.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the polyamide 6, 10 is renewable.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polyamide 11 is about 100% biorenewable.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the blended polyamide material has a renewable carbon content between about 63% to about 100%.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one stabilization agent is selected from the group consisting of toluene, and m-cresol.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the melting occurs at a melting temperature between about 200° C. and about 300° C.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the melting occurs for 10 minutes.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising preparing the polyamide 11 by vacuum drying at a pressure of between about 1 psi and about 15 psi, at a temperature between about 60° C. and about 100° C., for a duration of between about 12 hours to about 30 hours.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein between about 0.1 wt % and about 0.40 wt % of the at least one stabilization agent in the melted polyamide mixture is used.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising cooling the blended polyamide material to about room temperature.
13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising comminuting blended polyamide material into pellets.
14. A thermodynamically miscible, biorenewable polyamide blend with varying renewable carbon content, comprising:
polyamide 11; and
polyamide 6, 10.
15. The polyamide blend of claim 14 , wherein storage moduli of the biorenewable polyamide blend is between about 1.9 GPA and about 2.5 GPA.
16. The polyamide blend of claim 14 , wherein the impact strength of the biorenewable polyamide blend is between about 43 J/m and about 71 J/m.
17. A method of solution blending a blended polymer, comprising:
mixing polyamide 11 and polyamide 6, 10 with a stabilizing agent to prepare a polymer solution; and
drying the polymer solution to produce the blended polymer, wherein the blended polymer is thermodynamically miscible.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the mixing occurs at a temperature between about 200° C. and about 300° C.
19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the stabilizing agent is selected from the group consisting of toluene, and m-cresol.
20. The method of claim 17 , wherein at least a portion of the polyamide 6, 10 is renewable.