PE-CPE blends and their graphene oxide nanocomposites with reduced low temperature brittleness

Abstract

The low-temperature flexibility of polyethylene (PE)–chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) blends and their composites with a small amount of graphene oxide filler was studied. Quantitative height variation in the AFM images, rheological as well as fracture analyses were employed to gain insights into the generation of flexibility in the matrix phase. The semi-crystalline CPE (CPE25) polymer did not induce viscoelastic behavior at temperatures lower than the glass transition temperature of PE, whereas the amorphous CPE (CPE35) had completely different behavior. The samples with CPE35 could not be sufficiently hardened even at −180 °C and remained too soft for cryosectioning. Therefore, compression, which results in a 30–60 % reduction in length along the cutting direction with no change in the dimension perpendicular to it, was very prominent for both thin section and block face of the sample. The composites had even higher degree of compression due to additional effect of weak filler matrix interactions and as a consequence, the topographical variations led to filler pull out during sectioning. It was also confirmed using the rheological analysis that composites (and blends with 10 % CPE35 content) had phase immiscibility as CPE phase was suspected to concentrate near the graphene oxide phase leading to generation of chlorine-rich phases. The addition of graphene oxide did not lead to reduced flexibility and the composites also retained the modulus similar to pure polymer. The mechanical fracture of the samples also confirmed the flexibility of the CPE containing blends and composites as these samples were still flexible at −195 °C.