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Modified Crystalline Structure of Silane‐Crosslinked Polyethylene in the Proximity of Nanodiamonds |
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| Authors: | Eleftheria Roumeli Jiri Brus Olivia Policianova Konstantinos Chrissafis Dimitrios N Bikiaris |
| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering (D‐MAVT), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zürich, Switzerland;2. Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague 6, Czech Republic;3. Solid State Physics Department, School of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece;4. Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Technology, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece |
| Abstract: | The introduction of nanodiamond particles (NDs) in silane‐crosslinked polyethylene is found to lead to a notable and systematic deformation of the polymer unit cell. X‐ray diffraction evidence of the existence of a modified crystalline structure in the bulk of the polymer due to the presence of NDs is reported here for the first time. The covalent bonding between NDs and the surrounding macromolecular chains may support that the excessive local stress field ultimately distorts the polymer conformation, yielding a new distorted but still crystalline interface. Supporting data from solid‐state NMR experiments confirm the existence of a modified crystalline interface of about 1–2 nm in all the nanocomposite materials.  |
| Keywords: | crosslinked polyethylene crystalline conformation deformation nanodiamonds X‐ray diffraction |