Effects of compatibilizer, compounding method, extrusion parameters, and nanofiller loading in clay-reinforced recycled HDPE/PET nanocomposites.

ABSTRACT Nanocomposites based on recycled high density polyethylene (rHDPE), recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), and organoclay (C10A) were made using twin screw extruder followed by hot pressing. The independent effects of polymer/clay compatibility, preparation method, extrusion parameters, and clay loadings were investigated. Ethylene-glycidyl methacrylate could effectively improve the compatibilization of immiscible rHDPE/rPET blend with clay, which confirmed by the good polymers-clay adherence and domain size reduction obtained in scanning electron microscopy images. Although intercalated structures were observed in the composites made by one-step compounding, in the composites prepared by two-step extrusion method, enhanced dispersion of clay in polymer blend was found from X-ray diffraction results. Higher extrusion temperature and intermediate speed of rotation (90 rpm) appeared to increase the mechanical properties due to improvement of nanofiller dispersion in matrix. Results showed that the stiffness increased whereas tensile and impact strength decreased with clay content. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42287. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]