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Enabling controlled dispersion in polyethylene nanocomposites using small‐angle scattering
Author(s) -
Xiao Zhicheng,
Li Ying,
Akpalu Yvonne A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
polymer composites
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.577
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1548-0569
pISSN - 0272-8397
DOI - 10.1002/pc.20587
Subject(s) - nanocomposite , materials science , polyethylene , composite material , dispersion (optics) , scattering , light scattering , polymer , nanoparticle , dynamic light scattering , polymer nanocomposite , optics , nanotechnology , physics
In this article, we present some key results that demonstrate the useful application of light scattering to characterize the dispersion of nanoparticles in polymer matrix, using polyethylene nanocomposite as an example. Our results show that the dispersions of nanoparticles in polyethylene nanocomposite, that influence the thermomechanical properties of polyethylene nanocomposites, can be characterized by using small angle light scattering. This proposition is motivated by recent synthetic and morphological characterization progress towards achieving ideally dispersed polyethylene nanocomposites. Our results are significant because it is shown that using light, size and shape features that correlate well with the scanning electron microscopy observations of nanoparticle dispersion can be obtained using our unique vertical light scattering set‐up. POLYM. COMPOS., 2009. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers