Study of the effect of organic clay on the shear‐induced crystallization of high‐density polyethylene through dynamic‐packing injection molding |
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Authors: | Cong Deng Xueqin Gao Zhanchun Chen Shan Xue Kaizhi Shen |
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Affiliation: | 1. Analytical and Testing Center, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, PR China;2. College of Polymer Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, PR China;3. College of Material Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030024, PR China;4. State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, PR China |
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Abstract: | Organic nanoparticles as heterogeneous nucleators have a great effect on the crystallization of polymer matrices in nanocomposite systems, and the effect will be enhanced under shear flow. A home‐made dynamic‐packing injection molding (DPIM) device was developed to explore the effect of organic clay on the shear‐induced crystallization of high‐density polyethylene (HDPE). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the flow‐induced crystalline structure of HDPE/clay nanocomposite injection moldings. It was found that higher crystallinity and thicker crystal planes which contribute to the improvement of mechanical properties were achieved in HDPE/clay nanocomposite samples prepared by DPIM. DSC results clearly showed that an increase of about 16% in crystallinity was achieved in dynamic HDPE/clay nanocomposite samples compared with traditional unfilled HDPE samples. WAXD confirmed that dynamic HDPE/clay nanocomposite samples had maximum crystal sizes at the (110) and (200) planes of 335 and 305 Å, respectively. SEM images indicated that the arrangement of crystalline structures in dynamic HDPE/clay samples was altered slightly compared with unfilled HDPE samples prepared using the same processing parameters. The results showed that organic clay was beneficial for increasing crystallinity and crystal size in the HDPE/clay nanocomposite system under shear flow. Meanwhile the arrangement of crystalline structures was insignificantly affected by the organic clay, and the preferred regular arrangement of lamellae could still be formed in the dynamic HDPE/clay nanocomposite system. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry |
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Keywords: | organic clay nanocomposite crystallization injection molding |
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