In this study, a novel reclaimed clay nanofiller was used to manufacture low-density polyethylene (LDPE)/Oil based mud filler (OBMF) nanocomposites by a melt compounding process. The mechanical testing samples were manufactured using injection moulding. The effect of reclaimed clay minerals influencing the crystallinity and the dispersion characteristics of this clay in LDPE matrix affecting the structural and thermal properties of the nanocomposites was investigated. It was observed that OBMFs were compatible with LDPE matrix which implies a strong interfacial interaction between the clay layers and polymer and that the influence of clay minerals present in OBMFs formed chemical bonds within the microstructure of the nanocomposites. The char yields of nanocomposites increased with OBMFs content. The T D5% and T D50% (onset degradation temperature at 5 wt% loss and 50 wt% loss, respectively) of the LDPE nanocomposite with 10.0 wt% OBMFs was the highest (27°C higher in T D5% and 54°C higher in T D50%) among the nanocomposites. Viscoelastic analysis data showed a sharp decrease in the storage modulus of OBMFs reinforced LDPE nanocomposites. The tan δ spectra presented a strong influence of the filler contents on the relaxation process of LDPE and its nanocomposites. An enhancement of mechanical properties of composites was identified which showed a gain of 14% Young's modulus and a gain of 18% tensile strength at 10.0 wt% OBMFs loading compared to those properties of neat LDPE. The effect of filler dispersion in LDPE polymer matrix in relation to thermal stability was investigated and heat capacity data is employed to characterise changes in thermal characteristics relating to the nanomorphology of the materials.

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The crystallinity and thermal degradation behaviours of Polyamide 6/Oil Based Mud Fillers (PA6/OBMFs) nanocomposites have been investigated using DSC and TGA. TGA indicates the onset decomposition temperature of D1/2 (half-decomposition) is 16º C higher for PA6 with 10.0 wt.% of OBMFs than that of PA6, whereas the lowest onset decomposition temperature difference among the nanocomposites and neat PA6 is 8º C for PA6 with 7.5 wt.% of OBMFs. However PA6 with 5.0 wt. % OBMFs nanocomposite has taken the longest time (1minute 36 seconds more than neat PA6) to reach D1/2. It can be deduced in this study that PA6 with 5.0 wt. % OBMFs nanocomposite provided the maximum heat resistant property whereas PA6 with 7.5 wt. % OBMFs nanocomposite showed the maximum heat absorbance property among different nanocomposites and PA6 with 10.0 wt.

This study investigat the effectiveness of reduced graphene oxide as nanofiller in enhancing epoxy/carbon fiber-reinforced composite at varying temperature conditions. The graphene oxide is synthesized using modified Hummer's method and then is chemically reduced to yield reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The rGO is dispersed in epoxy matrix system through combination of mechanical and sonication methods. The flexural and shear test samples are manufactured using resin infusion technique. These samples are then tested to determine their shear and flexural properties at varying temperatures (À10 C, 23 C, 40 C) and the results correlate to neat samples. It is found that the composites' flexural strength and flexural modulus increase with rGO wt% content up to 62% and 44%, respectively. The shear testing results show improvement on the shear strength and modulus at maximum of 6% and 40%, respectively. The rGO improvements advantage is lost for flexural strength, shear strength, and modulus at elevated temperatures while flexural modulus withheld at 40% improvements over virgin epoxy/carbon fiber-reinforced composite. An interesting observation is that all samples with rGO exhibit reduced damage characteristics superior to the neat samples under flexural and shear loading conditions. This study indicates that the addition of rGO significantly alter the flexural and shear properties, failure modes, damage characteristics, and they are overall sensitive to elevated temperature conditions.

Oil-based mud (OBM) waste from the oil and gas exploration industry can be valorised to tailor-made reclaimed clay-reinforced low-density polyethylene (LDPE) nanocomposites. This study aims to fill the information gap in the literature and to provide opportunities to explore the effective recovery and recycling techniques of the resources present in the OBM waste stream. Elemental analysis using inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and X-ray fluorescence analysis, chemical structural analysis by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and morphological analysis of LDPE/organo-modified montmorillonite (LDPE/MMT) and LDPE/OBM slurry nanocomposites by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been conducted. Further analysis including calorimetry, thermogravimetry, spectroscopy, microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD) was carried out to evaluate the thermo-chemical characteristics of OBM waste and OBM clay-reinforced LDPE nanocomposites, confirming the presence of different clay minerals including inorganic salts in OBM slurry powder. The microscopic analysis revealed that the distance between polymer matrix and OBM slurry filler is less than that of MMT, which suggests better interfacial adhesion of OBM slurry compared with the adhesion between MMT and LDPE matrix. This was also confirmed by XRD analysis, which showed the superior delamination structure OBM slurry compared with the structure of MMT. There is a trend noticeable for both of these fillers that the nanocomposites with higher percentage filler contents (7.5 and 10.0 wt% in this case) were indicated to act as a thermal conductive material. The heat capacity values of nanocomposites decreased about 33% in LDPE with 7.5 wt% MMT and about 17% in LDPE with 10.0 wt% OBM slurry. It was also noted, for both nanocomposites, that the residue remaining after 1000°C increases with the incremental wt% of fillers in the nanocomposites. There is a big difference in residue amount (in %) left after thermogravimetric analysis in the two nanocomposites, indicating that OBM slurry may have significant influence in decomposing LDPE matrix; this might be an interesting area to explore in the future. The results provide insight and opportunity to manufacture waste-derived renewable nanocomposites with enhanced structural and thermal properties.