ABSTRACT
Keywords ................................................................................................ 42 References ............................................................................................... 42
3.1 THE REINFORCEMENT MECHANISM OF NANOCOMPOSITES POLYETHYLENE OR ORGANOCLAY ON SUPRA-SEGMENTAL LEVEL
3.1.1 INTRODUCTION
Very often, a filler (nanofiller) is introduced in polymers with the purpose of latter stiffness increase. 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 in 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 the filler (nanofiller) elasticity modulus and the last two-donot. The percolation [2] and fractal [3] models of reinforcement assume that the filler (nanofiller) role comes in the modification and fixation of matrix polymer structure. Such approach is obvious enough, if to account for the difference of elasticity modulus of filler (nanofiller) and matrix polymer. So in the present paper, nanocomposites low density polyethylene/Na+-montmorillonite, the matrix polymer elasticity modulus makes up 0.2GPa [4] and nanofiller400-420GPa [5], that is, the difference makes up more than three orders. It is obvious that at such conditions organoclay strain is practically equal to zero and nanocomposites’ behavior in mechanical tests is defined by polymer matrix behavior.
