Abstract:

The rheological behavior of interfacebonded metallocene and polyethylene/polymerizable modified montmoillonite(mPE/P-MMT) nanocomposite had been studied. It was found that there was cross-linking structure formed by PE matrix and P-MMTs; and mPE/P-MMT nanocomposite had higher melting strength compared with mPE matrix and conventional metallocene bonded polyethylene/dodecylammonium modified montmoillonite(mPE/12-MMT) composite. The melting strength of mPE/P-MMT at 190 ℃ was 12.0 cN. Supercritical carbon dioxide was used as foaming agent for foaming the samples. According to the results, higher volume expansion ratio, as much as 14.7, was obtained for the mPE/P-MMT sample compared with others. The optimum temperature for the foaming process on mPE/P-MMT nanocomposite was 142 ℃.

Key words: metallocene catalyzed polyethylene, nanocomposite, foam, rheology