Thermoplastic vulcanizates with advantageous adhesion to polar substrates

1. A thermoplastic vulcanizate comprising:

(i) a dynamically-cured rubber; and

(ii) a thermoplastic polymer component, where the thermoplastic polymer component includes (a) a propylene-α-olefin thermoplastic copolymer characterized by including at least 5% by weight up to 35% by weight units deriving from α-olefins, and having a heat of fusion, as determined by DSC, of less than 80 J/g, and (b) a functionalized thermoplastic polymer.

2. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 1 , where the propylene-α-olefin copolymer is characterized by heat of fusion, as determined by DSC, of less than 70 J/g.

3. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 1 , where the propylene-α-olefin copolymer is further characterized by a crystallinity of less than 40%.

4. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 1 , where the propylene-α-olefin copolymer is further characterized by a crystallinity of from about 0.25 to about 25%.

5. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 2 , where the propylene-α-olefin copolymer is further characterized by a melt temperature of less than 110° C.

6. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 5 , where the propylene-α-olefin copolymer is further characterized by a melt temperature of less than 90° C.

7. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 1 , where the thermoplastic vulcanizate includes at least 10 parts by weight of the functionalized thermoplastic polymer per 100 parts by weight rubber.

8. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 1 , where the thermoplastic vulcanizate includes at least 25 parts by weight of the functionalized thermoplastic polymer per 100 parts by weight rubber.

9. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 1 , where the thermoplastic vulcanizate includes from about 3 to about 15% by weight functionalized thermoplastic resin based on the total weight of the rubber and thermoplastic component combined.

10. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 1 , where the functionalized thermoplastic polymer includes a maleated polypropylene polymer.

11. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 10 , where said functionalized thermoplastic polymer is a propylene-based polymer having a melt flow rate from about 20 to about 2,000 dg/min per ASTM D-1238 at 230° C. and 2.1 kg load.

12. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 11 , where said functionalized thermoplastic polymer includes at least 0.2% by weight functionalization.

13. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 1 , where the thermoplastic polymer component further includes a low-crystallinity thermoplastic resin.

14. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 1 , where the thermoplastic vulcanizate include at least 10 parts by weight low-crystallinity thermoplastic resin per 100 parts by weight rubber.

15. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 13 , where the thermoplastic vulcanizate includes from about 5 to about 40% by weight of the low-crystallinity thermoplastic resin based on the total weight of the rubber and thermoplastic component combined.

16. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 1 , where the thermoplastic vulcanizate includes from about 10 to about 85% by weight thermoplastic polymer based upon the total weight of the rubber and thermoplastic polymer component combined.

17. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 16 , where the thermoplastic vulcanizate includes from 3 to about 60% by weight propylene-α-olefin copolymer based on the total weight of the rubber and thermoplastic polymer component combined.

18. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 16 , where the thermoplastic vulcanizate includes from about 30 to about 80 parts by weight propylene-α-olefin copolymer per 100 parts by weight rubber.

19. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 1 , where the thermoplastic vulcanizate further comprises a functionalized hydrocarbon resin.

20. A method for preparing a thermoplastic vulcanizate, the method comprising:

dynamically vulcanizing a rubber within a mixture with a thermoplastic polymer component, where the thermoplastic polymer component includes (a) a propylene-α-olefin thermoplastic copolymer characterized by including at least 5% by weight up to 35% by weight units deriving from α-olefins, and having a heat of fusion, as determined by DSC, of less than 80 J/g, and (b) a functionalized thermoplastic polymer.

21. A thermoplastic vulcanizate comprising:

(i) a dynamically-cured rubber; and

(ii) a thermoplastic polymer component, where the thermoplastic polymer component includes (a) a propylene-α- olefin thermoplastic copolymer characterized by including at least 5% by weight up to 35% by weight units deriving from α-olefins, and having a heat of fusion, as determined by DSC, of less than 80 J/g; (b) from about 3 to about 15% by weight of a functionalized thermoplastic resin, based on the total weight of the rubber and thermoplastic rubber and thermoplastic component combined; and (c) from about 5 to about 40% by weight of a the low-crystallinity thermoplastic resin based on the total weight of the rubber and thermoplastic component combined.

22. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 21 , where the rubber is a copolymer of ethylene, propylene, and a diene.

23. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 22 , where the diene is 5-vinyl-2-norbornene.

24. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 21 , where the rubber is cured with a silicon-containing curative.

25. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 21 , where the thermoplastic vulcanizate is characterized by a Shore A hardness (ISO 868) of 55 to 64.

26. The thermoplastic vulcanizate of claim 21 , where the thermoplastic vulcanizate is characterized by adhesive properties sufficient to achieve a bond strength to aluminium of 2.46 kN/m pursuant to ASTM D-903-98 (conditioning for 24 hours) without the use of adhesive and by compression molding the thermoplastic vulcanizates to the aluminium.