Increment in oxygen permeability of polyethylene by inclusion of acicular nanofillers

MARTINI, RAQUEL EVANGELINA; LA TÉGOLA, SIMONE; IANONNI, ANTONIO; TERENZI, ANDREA; KENNY, JOSÉ M.; BARBOSA, SILVIA ELENA

San Sebastián, España

Conferencia; V International Conference on Science and Technology of Composite Materials COMAT´09; 2009

Universidad del País Vasco

Polyethylene (PE) - sepiolite nanocomposites are very interesting materials because they combine their properties in a synergetic manner. Chemically, sepiolite is a hydrated magnesium silicate with a needle-like structure, instead of clays typical plate-like. For this reason sepiolite has the greatest surface area of all the clay minerals with a high density of silanol groups (-SiOH) which explain the high hydrophilicity of this filler. The high surface area and porosity account for the remarkable adsorptive properties of this clay. In this work, a systematic study of oxygen permeability and mechanical properties on films was performed in order to investigate the influence of the sepiolite content and modification on the basic properties of PE. The nanocomposites were prepared in a laboratory twin screw extruder. Samples with 1, 3, 5 and 10 wt % and using sepiolite with and without surface modification were prepared and tested. Results show important increment oxygen permeability as the nanoclay content increases, without loose the good film processability.