Structure and Mechanical Properties of High-Density Polyethylene Composites Reinforced with Glassy Carbon

• Main Authors: Piotr Olesik, Marcin Godzierz, Mateusz Kozioł, Jakub Jała, Urszula Szeluga, Jerzy Myalski
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-07-01
• Series: Materials
• Subjects: high-density polyethylene (HDPE); polymer matrix composite; glassy carbon; X-ray diffraction; residual stress analysis
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/14/14/4024

In this paper, we investigated theimpact of glassy carbon (GC) reinforcement oncrystal structure and the mechanical performance of high-density polyethylene (HDPE). We made composite samples by mixing HDPE granules with powder in ethanol followed bymelt mixing in a laboratory extruder. Along with the investigated composite, we also prepared samples with carbon nanotubes (CNT), graphene (GNP) and graphite (Gr) to compare GC impact with already used carbon fillers. To evaluate crystal structure and crystallinity, we used X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). We supported the XRD results with a residual stress analysis (RSA) according to the EN15305 standard. Analysis showed that reinforcing with GC leads to significant crystallite size reduction and low residual stress values. We evaluated the mechanical properties of composites with hardness and tensile testing. The addition of glassy carbon results inincreased mechanical strength incomposites with CNT and GNP.