Quasistatic and dynamic nanomechanical properties of HDPE reinforced with 0/1/2 dimensional carbon nanofillers based hybrid nanocomposite using nanoindentation

Abstract

Engineering polymers poses critical loopholes like lack of stiffness, hardness and wear resistance which were influenced by nanomechanical properties like hardness, plasticity index and differential damping behaviour. Study reports on preparation and characterization of novel nanocomposite and hybrid nanocomposite that would be alternate to virgin engineering polymers using quasistatic and dynamic nanoindentation. Nanocomposites and hybrid nanocomposites were prepared using High density polyethylene (HDPE) as matrix reinforced with alternate and possible combination of 0D (Nano-Diamonds-(NDs), 1D (Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes- (MWCNTs) and 2D (Graphite nanoplatelets-(GNPs) nanofillers using twin screw injection moulding machine. Quasi static Properties like; hardness, Young's modulus of HDPE/0.1 GNP/0.1 ND was observed to increase by 83.33, 25.17% on comparison to pure HDPE and plasticity index reduced by 67.77%. Dynamic properties like; storage modulus, loss modulus and Tan delta at a frequency sweep from 10 to 220 Hz confirm the overall elastic behavior of the nanocomposites.