Effect of bark flour on viscoelastic behavior of high density polyethylene

Abstract

The dynamic mechanical behavior of high density polyethylene (HDPE) in HDPE/bark flour (BF) composites on varying the volume fraction (Φf) of BF (filler) from 0 to 0.26 has been studied. The storage modulus decreases with increase in BF content up to Φf = 0.07, which is attributed to a pseudolubricating effect by the filler. The storage modulus for the composites at Φ f = 0.20 is higher than HDPE in all other temperature zones due to enhanced mechanical restraint by the dispersed phase. At Φf = 0.07, the loss moduli were either marginally lower or similar to that of HDPE, which is due to the ball-bearing effect of the filler as well as decrease in the crystallinity of HDPE. Above Φf = 0.07, the loss moduli were higher than HDPE. The α-relaxation region of the damping peak shifted toward the higher temperature side with increase in BF content. In the presence of the coupling agent, maleic anhydride-grafted HDPE (HDPE-g-MAH), the storage modulus values were marginally lower than those of the HDPE/BF systems. In the HDPE/BF/HDPE—g—MAH composites, the variations of the loss moduli were similar but values lower than those of the HDPE/BF systems. Damping peak shift in the α-region toward higher temperature was more than those of the HDPE/BF systems, which may be due to the hindrance to the relaxation due to an enhanced phase interaction. The values of tan δ were higher than the rule of mixture for both the composites.