Process-induced morphology and mechanical properties of high-density polyethylene

Electron induced reactive processing (EIReP) is an emerging technology for the development of high performance polymer materials. It simultaneously combines the traditional electron beam (EB) treatment of polymers and their melt mixing in the presence of shear stresses and/or rates of deformation. In comparison to traditional EB treatment of high-density polyethylene (HD-PE) at room temperature, EIReP modified HD-PE shows an inhomogeneous morphology, a self-nucleation effect as well as a significant increased tensile strength and decreased elongation at break. In order to identify the reason of these changed properties and the working principle of EIReP, HD-PE has been modified by EB treatment in solid and molten state as well as before and after the presence of shear stresses and/or rates of deformation. Shear stresses and/or rates of deformation were applied during injection moulding of tensile specimens. Based on results of previous work the EB treatments and EIReP of HD-PE were performed under nitrogen atmosphere in order to reduce oxygen induced side reactions. The process induced morphological and mechanical properties have been investigated using optical light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy as well as thermal analysis and tensile tests. Changes of molecular mass were measured with size exclusion chromatography and confirmed by rheological measurements. The results demonstrate that the morphology and specific tensile properties of HD-PE were only changed by an EB treatment before the influence of shear stresses and/or rates of deformation on EB modified HD-PE during injection moulding. In addition, the state of aggregate during EB treatment has no influence on morphology and tensile properties. Consequently, the EIReP induced effect based on electron induced changes of HD-PE molecular structure and the subsequent influence of shear stresses and/or rates of deformation. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.