1. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica dei Processi e dei Materiali, Università di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, ItalyDipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica dei Processi e dei Materiali, Università di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy. Fax: +39 0916567280;2. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica dei Processi e dei Materiali, Università di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Abstract:
Thermo‐mechanical degradation of LDPE‐based nanocomposites was studied by mainly investigating the rheological properties. For all of the investigated processing conditions, the viscosity of the nanocomposites was higher than that of the pure‐LDPE matrix, but on increasing the severity of the mixing conditions, the difference between the viscosity of the nano‐filled polymer and that of the pure LDPE decreased. The X‐ray traces of the nanocomposites suggest that intercalation has been achieved during the melt, when less‐severe processing conditions were used. At severe processing conditions (longer mixing time, high temperature and shear stress) the thermo‐mechanical degradation was accelerated, possibly due to the loss of mass from the organoclay galleries. The variations of the viscosity in the presence of two organo‐modified montmorillonite (MMt) clays were compared to the ones observed with a MMt clay at different processing conditions.
