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Interaction simulation and experimental physico-mechanical analysis of distinct polarity blends of polyethylene and polyvinyl alcohol

Lee, Tin Sin and Bee, Soo-Tueen and Ang, Rui-Ren and Tee, Tiam-Ting and Phang, Siew-Wei and Rahmat, Abdul Razak (2015) Interaction simulation and experimental physico-mechanical analysis of distinct polarity blends of polyethylene and polyvinyl alcohol. Journal of Polymer Engineering, 35 (5). pp. 423-435. ISSN 0334-6447

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/polyeng-2014-0232

Abstract

This paper aimed to investigate the interaction of distinct polarity polymer blends of polyethylene and polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH). Molecular mechanics and dynamics simulation were employed to determine the stability of polyethylene and PVOH complexes. It was found that the binding energies ?E for all complexes of polyethylene and PVOH are negative values indicating that the interactions between both components are favorable to achieve a lower energy hierarchy. Such interactions are induced by the high polarity hydroxyl groups of PVOH which caused weak distortion to the dipole moment of inherently non-polar polyethylene. Furthermore, the molecular simulation results were compared with tensile strength, X-ray diffraction and morphology analyses. Tensile strength analysis revealed there was a reduction of magnitude for varying PVOH before achieving a maximum value. Adding small quantities of PVOH in polyethylene as the different polar elements would affect the ordered structure within the blends. Nevertheless, the reduction is insignificant due to the polarity of PVOH which has a slightly distorted polar network of polyethylene. The addition of PVOH (5-15 parts per hundred) into a polyethylene matrix has significantly reduced the crystallinity of the polyethylene matrix by disturbing the highly ordered arrangement structures.

Item Type:Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:polyvinyl alcohol, stability
Subjects:T Technology > TP Chemical technology
Divisions:Chemical Engineering
ID Code:56005
Deposited By: Fazli Masari
Deposited On:15 Nov 2016 08:32
Last Modified:15 Feb 2017 00:43

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