Graft copolymers and blends thereof with polyolefins

Abstract From the Canadian patent

A novel graft copolymer capable of imparting to a polyolefin when blended therewith high tensile modulus and high sag resistance without increasing melt viscosity, and a method of making the same. The graft copolymer is a polyolefin having a relatively high weight-average molecular weight methacrylate polymer grafted thereto. The graft copolymer is formed by dissolving or swelling a non-polar polyolefin in an inert hydrocarbon solvent, heating to dissolve the polyolefin and, while stirring the mixture, adding a methacrylate monomer together, with an initiator to produce a constant low concentration of radicals, to, form a graft copolymer with a high molecular weight polymer chain covalently …