Oxygen Permeability Coefficient of High Density Polyethylene/Cu Nanofibers Nanocomposites below Percolation

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to relate the elastic modulus of a polymer nanocomposite to its permeability coefficient. The materials studied included high density polyethylene (HDPE) filled with copper nanofibers (Cu-nanofibers). Both of the experimental values of the elastic modulus and the gas permeability coefficient of the HDPE/Cu-nanofibers films were obtained from Grigoriadou et al. and Bikiaris & Triantafyllidis studies. In this study, the Halpin-Tsai model was modified and then used to fit the elastic modulus experimental data. It was found that the modified shape factor (${\omega }^{\prime }$) of the Cu fibers as a function of the composite volume fraction is$125\text{exp}\left(-41\varnothing \right)$. Then, the model was used to predict the oxygen permeability coefficient of the HDPE/Cu-nanofibers films below the percolation point. It was found that the tensile modulus of the nanocomposites increased by 24% whereas the permeability to oxygen coefficients decreased by 65% compared to pristine HDPE. Also, the results from the models match the experimental data.

Keywords:
Cu-nanofiber; polyethylene; Halpin-Tsai model; permeability coefficient; percolation