Structural and thermal degradation behaviour of reclaimed clay nano-reinforced low-density polyethylene nanocomposites

Abstract

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.

Oil-based mud waste reclamation and utilisation in low-density polyethylene composites

“…The presence of a band at 2364.02 cm –1 indicates the possibility of the presence of illite (Nayak and Singh, 2007). The peak at 1087.37 cm –1 represents the stretching of Si-O, which indicates the presence of kaolinite (Siddique et al, 2019b) (Nayak and Singh, 2007). The infrared absorption band at 1713.90 cm –1 corresponds to silica-aluminium and aluminosilicates present in the nanocomposites (Djomgoue and Njopwouo, 2013).…”

“…where ∆Hm is the heat of melting, ∆Hc the heat of cold crystallisation which is 0 in this experiment ( ∆Hc = 0 in this case) due to the absence of a cold crystallisation phase in this experiment, and ∆Hm ° is a reference value if the polymer were 100% crystalline. All the units are in Jg –1 and the value of ∆Hm ° is 293 Jg –1 (Siddique et al, 2019b). The % of crystallinity values of LDPE, LDPE/MMT and LDPE/OBM slurry nanocomposites are presented in Table 3.…”

“…The management of OBM waste is an important issue, as most of the hazardous chemicals associated with OBM waste exist in solid form and are disposed of in landfill sites (Hainey et al, 1999; Walter et al, 2012). Of interest, this OBM waste contains significant amounts of clay minerals and metals, which makes the use of this waste attractive in engineering polymeric nanocomposites applications (Siddique et al, 2019a, 2019b).…”

Sepiolite as a nanofiller to improve mechanical and thermal behavior of recycled high-density polyethylene

“…Comparison of modified sepiolite and unmodified sepiolite in this study revealed no significant difference in the final properties of nanocomposites. 20 Although there is a lot of studies [21][22][23] concerning the effect of sepiolite as a nanofiller in PE or its copolymers, to the best of author's knowledge, there is no report of using this nanofiller in combination with recycled material. In this study, we considered for the first time the thermal and mechanical behavior of recycled HDPE nanocomposites containing sepiolite as nanofiller.…”

Sıcak Plaka Kaynak Yöntemi ile Birleştirilmiş Benzer ve Benzer Olmayan Alçak Yoğunluklu Polietilen (AYPE) Bağlantıların Mekanik Özelliklerinin Karşılaştırmalı Olarak Araştırılması

“…Düşük yoğunluklu polietilen hafif ağırlığı, yüksek kimyasal dayanımı, üretim sürecindeki kolaylığı ve en önemlisi ucuz bir polimer türü olması gibi cazip özellikleri nedeniyle geniş endüstriyel kullanım alanına sahiptir [8][9][10]. Yarı kristal (~40%) bir polimer olan bu malzemenin çok çeşitli endüstriyel uygulama alanları bulunmaktadır [11].…”