Structure-property-processing relationships of polyethylene nanocomposites

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Through this NSERC CRD project, Dr. U. Sundararaj and his research team, the Polymer Processing Group in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at University of Calgary will work with product scientists, process engineers, polymer physicists and analytical chemists at NOVA Chemicals to design and develop materials with improved modulus (stiffness) for use in applications like injection molded, rotationally molded and blow-molded polyethylene (PE) containers. Many of the products generated from these processes require high modulus materials that will provide more sustainablility by allowing manufacturers to make parts with lower wall thicknesses and thereby use less plastic. Nanomaterials incorporated into polyethylene provide a viable method to achieve this. The project will also focus on improving other key properties such as strength, ductility, and permeability. These novel materials would provide new market opportunities for industrial drums/bulk containers (IBC's), caps and closures, and rotomolded tanks. The key outcome from this university-industry CRD project will be to create fundamental knowledge about PE nanocomposites in terms of processing-structure-properties relationships such that NOVA Chemicals can exploit these results for market advantage. We will perform a fundamental and systematic study of processing to understand the mechanisms of morphology development and resulting structure-property relationships. Factors that influence PE blend structure, nanofiller orientation and nanofiller dispersion like polymer blend composition, miscibility, viscosity ratio, processing time, order of addition (eg. masterbatching), mixing temperature and shear rate would be studied. The goal of this work is to obtain PE/clay nanocomposites with higher tensile strength, modulus, and toughness and with lower moisture and oxygen permeability. The specific systems will encompass different types of nanofillers with different chemistries (such as organically modified nanoclays).