Development of blown film linear low‐density polyethylene‐clay nanocomposites: Part B: Mechanical and rheological characterization

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn a previous article nanocomposite films made from linear low‐density polyethylene (LLDPE) as matrix and org‐MMT clay as reinforcement were produced. Morphology, thermal stability, and barrier properties were already investigated. The actual work constitutes a complement of the aforementioned article where many mechanical aspects will be assessed: Unlike maleic anhydride grafted styrene‐ethylene‐butylene‐styrene (SEBS‐g‐MA) as compatibilizer, using maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene (PE‐g‐MA) has shown remarkable improvement of most of the properties and this for an optimum clay content ranging between 2 and 4%: the tensile strength has increased by 45%, the stiffness in transverse direction (TD) by 48%, the dart impact has improved by 20%, the tear resistance in machine direction (MD) has increased by 33% and the creep resistance by 20%. Other properties were found to improve with the clay content. In addition, the evolution of the storage and loss moduli as well as the complex viscosity with the frequency were recorded; the drop by 76% of the crossover frequency for 6% weight of clay has shown that the solid‐like behavior of the composite is pronounced with the increment of clay content. Melt flow index was found to vary inversely with clay amount; this indicates an increase in and hence a good dispersion of the clay within the polyethylene matrix. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48590.