Paper Title
Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Maleic Anhydride Grafted Hdpe (Hdpe-G-Mah) Nanocomposites Enriched with Tio2 Nanoparticles and Cellulose Nanocrystals (CNC)
Abstract
Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) are emerging renewable nanomaterials that are being studied in many different
applications, such as in biomedicine, chemicals, foods, and pharmaceuticals. Addition of CNC to various functional
nanomaterials results in the composites having outstanding properties, or significantly improved physical, chemical,
biological, as well as electronic properties. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of adding varying amounts of
CNC to maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene nanocomposites that are enriched with titanium dioxide nanoparticles.
Cellulose nanocrystals were added in 5%, 10% and 15% to the polymer matrix, and tensile testing along with thermal
characterization was performed. According to the mechanical results, the modulus of elasticity increased from 841 MPa to
1091 MPa when CNC content increased from 5 to 10 percent. Moreover, the elongation decreased consistently with 5%
showing 43.38% while at 10% CNC the value was found to be 10.425. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results
indicated that as the CNC content increased, the melting point of the composites increased while the crystallization
temperature decreased. Moreover, thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) revealed that with the addition of the nanofillers to the
matrix, thermal stability of the nanocomposites improved. An appreciable increasing trend was observed in both degradation
temperature and maximum degradation temperatures.
Keywords- HDPE nanocomposites, cellulose nanocrystals, TiO2 nanoparticles, maleic anhydride, tensile strength, DSC,
TGA