The phase morphology of PBAT/SPC blends was found to be greatly influenced by the combined effect of SPC content and
compatibilizer. Without compatibizer, the SPC phase exhibited very
coarse phase structure and large domain size. The addition of
maleic anhydride grafted PBAT as compatibilizer resulted in fine
morphological structure of the blends and elongated SPC domains
which were observed to increase with SPC content. The formation
of percolated SPC network structurewas noted at 25% or higher SPC
content as revealed by micrographs, dynamic rheological properties
and mechanical properties of the blends. The percolated SPC
structure greatly increased yield stress, tensile strength and elastic
modulus but led to significant reductions in yield strain and strain
at break. Dynamic mechanical properties of the blends are also
greatly affected by the phase structure. Storage modulus of PBAT/
SPC blends increased with SPC content and the addition of compatibilizer
in the whole testing temperature range. Compatibilizer
in blends was shown to be the prerequisite to obtain high performance
PBAT/SPC blends.