Abstract
In this work, polyethylene (PE)/silica microsphere composite melt is used to penetrate the ethylene-α-octene block copolymer (OBC) melt in multi-melt multi-injection molding (M3IM) process. Due to the viscosity difference between PE/silica composite melt and OBC melt, a disturbed flow interface of these two melts formed. Thanks to the “shear-induced migration” theory in suspended balance model (SB model) and the unique flow field in M3IM, silica microspheres can be designed to migrate from high shear rate layer to low shear rate layer in PE/silica core melt, further to intaglio micro-pits on the interface of PE/silica core and OBC skin melt. As a result, the migrated silica microspheres can be intuitively observed by peeling off the OBC layer, as well as a “lotus seedpod”-like structure consisting of quantity-adjustable asperities and micro-pits can be constructed on the peeled surface of OBC layer. This work sheds lights to rapidly fabricate multi-tier structures by polymer melt processing strategies, aiming to manufacture functional devices on a large scale.
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