ABSTRACT
This work deals with an investigation of thermal, mechanical and dynamic mechanical properties of composites of high density polyethylene(HDPE) with addition of mollusk shell powder (5, 10 and 20%wt). The pure matrix and its composites were first mixed in an internal mixer and then molded by compression. The mollusk shell powder incorporation decreased the melt index within a range of 23% to 53% whereas no relevant changes in crystallinity of matrix were observed. The shell powder was composed by 97.53% of CaO and its crystalline structure was constituted of calcite and aragonite, both polymorphs of calcium carbonate. The granulometric study showed a large distribution of particle size to the mollusk shell powder, which was also confirmed by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis of the fracture surface of the composites. The morphological aspects of the composites showed a poor adhesion between HDPE matrix and shell powder. The adding of filler increased the matrix rigidity and decreased its damping capacity. The incorporation of 10%wt mollusk shell powder shifted the glassy transition temperature (Tg) of the PEAD in 6 °C, while the composite with 20%wt did not show this transition temperature.
Keywords:
HDPE; mollusk shell powder; composite; molding compression; thermal analysis
