Dynamic Mechanical Analysis of Graphene Oxide/ Low Density Polyethylene Nanocomposite

Abstract

The global scientific community for the last three decades focuses mainly on polymer-based nanocomposites due to their ease of fabrication, flexibility, and above all easiness to handle them. Among the polymer materials, polyethylene got the attraction because of its readiness to be combined with most of the filler materials available in natural form as well as newly synthesized ones. The present study focuses on the synthesis of nanocomposites of Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) with graphene oxide nanoparticles as the filler. The graphene oxide nanoparticles are synthesized using a modified Hummers method. The composites are prepared by varying the amount of graphene oxide nanoparticles in the LDPE matrix using the melt extrusion method. The nanocomposites prepared were found to have good mechanical properties compared to the virgin LDPE material. The Dynamic Mechanic Analysis (DMA) confirmed that the quantity of the graphene oxide nanoparticles has a major role in the viscoelastic behaviour of the composites.