Open AccessCrystallization kinetics of high‐density and low‐density polyethylene on carbon nanotubes
Author(s) -
Depan Dilip,
Khattab Ahmed,
Simoneaux Austin,
Chirdon William
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
polymer crystallization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.443
H-Index - 9
ISSN - 2573-7619
DOI - 10.1002/pcr2.10062
Subject(s) - low density polyethylene , materials science , high density polyethylene , polyethylene , crystallization , differential scanning calorimetry , crystallinity , nucleation , carbon nanotube , crystallization of polymers , chemical engineering , scanning electron microscope , nanocomposite , polymer , composite material , crystal (programming language) , crystallite , polymer chemistry , chemistry , organic chemistry , physics , engineering , computer science , metallurgy , thermodynamics , programming language
This study presents a comparative analysis of the crystallization behavior of low‐density polyethylene (LDPE) and high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) nanocomposites. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were used as a nucleating agent to generate a nanohybrid shish‐kebab architecture. Materials characterizations were performed to evaluate the crystal morphology and crystallization kinetics using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), respectively. The lamellae of polyethylene were always found to grow laterally on the tube axis of CNTs. The parameters of the Avrami model for primary crystallization were determined. SEM indicated the crystal morphology changed from spherulitic to disk‐shaped with the addition of CNTs, while DSC‐based thermal examination indicated that the CNTs can provide nucleation sites to polyethylene to accelerate the crystal growth rate. HDPE was found to crystallize faster than LDPE on CNTs. The highly branched nature of LDPE's macromolecular chains are known to cause reduced chain mobility, which resulted in lower crystallinity values with smaller crystallite sizes for LDPE in this study. In comparison, the more linear HDPE chains have an increased polymer density and chain mobility, resulting in an improved nucleation ability of HDPE chain segments on CNTs.