Rheological and morphological analysis of irradiated high and low density polyethylene samples

Abstract

The influence of the g-irradiation intensity of commercial LDPE and HDPE granules (Kazanorgsintez PJSC, Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia) on their rheological and morphological properties at irradiation doses of 5 and 10 kGy was studied. Experiments in the oscillation mode revealed an increase in the dynamic moduli values with the increase of radiation dose compared to the initial samples. At the same g-irradiation doses, HDPE samples compared to LDPE showed the greatest changes in rheological properties, while the zero shear viscosity of HDPE increased by order of magnitude compared to the initial one at the irradiation dose of 10 kGy. Morphology analysis of supramolecular structures revealed an increase in cobweb-type structures for the irradiated sample in comparison with the initial one, which may indicate the formation of branched structures under g-irradiation.