Effects of clay dispersion on the foam morphology of LDPE/clay nanocomposites |
| |
| Authors: | Y H Lee K H Wang C B Park M Sain |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Faculty of Forestry, Center for Biocomposites and Biomaterials Processing, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3B3;2. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Microcellular Plastics Manufacturing Laboratory, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G8 |
| |
| Abstract: | Intercalated and exfoliated low‐density polyethylene (LDPE)/clay nanocomposites were prepared by melt blending with and without a maleated polyethylene (PE‐g‐MAn) as the coupling agent. Their morphology was examined and confirmed by X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The effects of clay content and dispersion on the cell morphology of nanocomposite foams during extrusion foaming process were also thoroughly investigated, especially with a small amount of clay of 0.05–1.0 wt%. This research shows the optimum clay content for achieving microcellular PE/clay nanocomposite foams blown with supercritical CO2. It is found that < 0.1 wt% of clay addition can produce the microcellular foam structure with a cell density of > 109 cells/cm3 and a cell size of ～ 5 μm. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 2129–2134, 2007 |
| |
| Keywords: | nanocomposites LDPE foam clay microcellular |
|
|
