The Effects of Organoclay and Compatibilizer on the Oxygen Barrier Properties of HDPE-based Nanocomposites

The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of organoclay and compatibilizer on the oxygen permeability of high density polyethylene (HDPE) / organoclay nanocomposite films. Nanocomposites films based on HDPE/organoclay were prepared by melt compounding followed by film blowing. Polypropylene grafted maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA) was used as compatibilizer in three levels, i.e. 0, 5 and 7.5 wt%. The values of organically modified montmorillonite (OMMT) were also considered the same as compatibilizer. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to identify the morphology of nanocomposites. The relative permeability of films was evaluated according to ASTM D1434. Tensile and tearing resistance tests were performed to characterize the mechanical properties of samples. The XRD results confirmed the intercalated morphology for nanocomposite films. Increasing the organoclay content contributes to lower permeability of nanocomposite films, but increasing the compoatibilizer amount has inverse effect. The relative oxygen permeability for the best nanocomposite sample has been decreased by two fold in compare to neat HDPE film. The Young’s modulus, tensile strength, and tearing resistance increased by increasing the organoclay loading level. However, the addition of compatibilizer improved tearing resistance and tensile strength with simultaneous decrease in the values of Young’s modulus.

کلیدواژه ها:

Nanocomposite ، Organoclay ، HDPE ، Permeability