Preparation Of High Performance Crosslinking Polyethylene Composite And The Study On Its Properties

In this paper, a high performance crosslinking polyethylene composite were successfully prepared via a novel processing method of combining dynamic vulcanization with the silane-grafted water-crosslink technique. PE is firstly grafted with vinyltriethoxysilane (VTEO) and then an epoxy resin is dynamically cured in a polyethylene-grafted-vinyltriethoxysilane matrix (PE-g-VTEO) through extruder to prepare dynamically cured PE-g-VTEO/epoxy blends. Polyethylene-grafted-maleic anhydride (PE-g-MAH) has been used as a compatibilizer to improve the interfacial action between PE-g-VTEO and epoxy.First, optimal polyethylene-grafted-vinyltriethoxysilane has been obtained through studying the effect of the various factors such as different kinds of silane, concentration of initiator, reaction temperature and time on the grafting efficiency.Second, the effect of epoxy curing and water-crosslinking of PE-g-silane on the properties of composite is also studied. In the experiment, the crosslinkable PE-g-silane was first prepared for the matrix of composite and then the epoxy was added into the matrix via dynamical curing and reactive extruding processing method so as to prepare the novel XPE/Epoxy composite. Later, the compatibility between epoxy and PE-g-silane as well as the effect of different kinds of post treating processing on the properties of composite are studied. The result is that the addition of PE-g-MAH could improve the interfacial interaction between epoxy and PE-g-silane and the hot water treating could further improve the mechanical properties of composite, especially the properties in the high temperature.Third, the effect of water releasing agent on the crosslinking behavior and mechanical properties of the novel composite is discussed. The result shows that addition of water releasing agent can facilitate the water crosslinking of composite without hot water treatment.