Thermal behaviour of nanocomposites based on linear-low-density poly(ethylene) and carbon nanotubes prepared by high energy ball milling

The thermal behaviour of nanocomposites of linear-low-density-poly(ethylene) (LLDPE) and carbon nanotubes (CNT), prepared by the method of High Energy Ball Milling (HEBM) has been in-depth investigated. The CNT affect the nucleation of LLDPE, in that they act as nucleating agents for LLDPE. Moreover, as it is shown by self-nucleation experiments, in the presence of CNT a direct transition from domain I to domain III, with lack of domain II takes place. Isothermal experiments show that the crystallization rate of the nanocomposites is much higher than that of neat LLDPE. It is worthy noting that such effect is very high even for low contents of CNT in the sample (i.e. 1% by weight), then additions of CNT do not have any further effect. Lastly, the dynamic-mechanical properties of LLDPE are slightly modified in the nanocomposites.