Polyethylene nanocomposites with silica, alumino-silicate and thermally reduced graphene were generated by adding pro-oxidant additive. Additive resulted in early degradation of pure polymer, however, the degradation was delayed in the presence of fillers. Graphene resulted in maximum extent of enhancement of peak degradation temperature (13-14 °C depending on the additive content) followed by silicate and silica. Additive also resulted in enhancement of polymer crystallinity, which was further aided by the filler, though no change in peak melting and crystallization temperatures was observed. The graphene and silicate particles were also observed to be uniformly dispersed in polymer matrix, whereas some aggregates were present in silica based composites. In graphene composite with 2.5 wt% additive content, the tensile modulus was increased by 1.95 times that of pure polymer. Increasing the additive content was also observed to enhance the mechanical performance. For instance, graphene nanocomposite with 1 % additive content had 40 % and 33 % increment in storage modulus at 50 °C and 70 °C respectively as compared to pure PE. The thick plaques of composites exhibited oxo-degradation in the presence of pro-oxidant with silica and silicate composites with 2.5 wt% additive having 100 % degree of embrittlement in 15-16 months at 30 °C. Graphene composites also exhibited ∼50 % embrittlement for the same conditions. The filler particles were observed to delay the time needed to attain embrittlement due to reduction in oxygen permeation in the matrix as well as UV absorption, however, these materials confirmed that degradation of the materials could be successfully tuned without sacrificing the mechanical, thermal and rheological properties of the nanocomposites.
Keywords: Chemical engineering; Engineering; Materials science; Nanotechnology.