ABSTRACT
Very often a filler (nanofiller) is introduced in polymers with the purpose of the stiffness increase of the latter. This effect is called polymer composites (nanocomposites) reinforcement and it is characterized by reinforcement degree Ec/Em (En/Em), where Ec, En and Em are elasticity moduli of composite, nanocomposite and matrix polymer, accordingly. The indicated effect significance results to a large number of quantitative models development, describing reinforcement degree: micromechanical [1], percolation [2] and fractal [3] ones. The principal distinction of the indicated models is the circumstance, that the first ones take into consideration filler (nanofiller) elasticity modulus and the last two don’t. The percolation [2] and fractal [3] models of reinforcement assume, that a filler (nanofiller) role comes to modification and fixation of matrix polymer structure. Such approach is obvious enough, if to take into consideration the difference of elasticity moduli of the filler (nanofiller) and matrix polymer. So, for the considered in the present paper nanocomposites low-density polyethylene/calcium carbonate the matrix polymer elasticity modulus makes up 85 MPa [4] and nanofiller – of order of tens GPa [1], i.e., the difference makes up more than two orders. It is obvious, that at such conditions calcium carbonate strain is equal practically to zero and nanocomposite behavior in mechanical tests is defined by polymer matrix behavior.
