Control of the rubber particle size and phase structure for the design of transparent methacrylate-acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene resin with excellent performance

Abstract Methyl methacrylate-acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (MABS) was obtained by blending the rubber phase with matrix resin. Matching the refractive index was crucial for transmittance in MABS resins. Additionally, the superimposed effect of particle size and the interfacial area further determined the MABS resin transparency. The MABS resin with a rubber particle size of 201nm had a transmission of 88.9% when the refractive indexes of the two phases were close. By utilizing a bimodal distribution of toughened particles in the phase domain structure, the rubber particle size could be altered while maintaining control over the interfacial area. It resulted in an increase in the transmittance of the MABS to 90.1%. The analysis of mechanical properties and morphology shows that the phase structure with a bimodal distribution of toughened particles is also beneficial to the impact and tensile strength of MABS resin. When toughening particles with a size of 73nm and 304nm were mixed in a mass ratio of 60:40, the impact strength was 145 J/m, the tensile strength was 47MPa, and the elongation at break was 20%. And the study investigated the impact of rubber content on the properties of transparent MABS resins.