This work aims to

experimentally and theoretically study the effects of ethylene–propylene

copolymers as compatibilizer on the phase morphologies, interfacial properties,

rheological behaviors and mechanical properties of ultrahigh molecular weight

polyethylene/homopolymerized polypropylene (UHMWPE/HPP) blends. The results

indicate that the addition of ethylene–propylene block copolymer EPS30R or

random copolymer DP3000 ranging within 1–3 parts per hundred parts (phr) of UHMWPE/HPP

blends can remarkably reduce the sizes of the UHMWPE particles and

significantly improve the mechanical property such as tensile strength and

elongation at break. Moreover, the ternary blends still show two-phase

morphologies, and the favorable melt flowability of the UHMWPE/HPP blends can

be basically maintained. Besides, dissipative particle dynamics simulations on

the ternary UHMWPE/HPP/ethylene–propylene copolymer blends indicate that with

fixed mole number of the block copolymer, longer block chains have higher

efficiency on reducing the interfacial tension than the shorter ones. But for

the block copolymers with fixed volume fraction, interfacial tensions firstly

decrease and then increase with increasing the chain length of block copolymer.