Rheological and Mechanical Behavior of LDPE/Calcium Carbonate Nanocomposites and Microcomposites

The increase of the interest in polymer nanocomposites has been leading to continuous growing search toward nanofillers alternative to the widely known clay-based ones. One of these possible alternatives is represented by calcium carbonate nanoparticles, which have not been widely investigated in such context. In this article, a study on the rheological and morphological behavior of dif- ferent low density polyethylene-calcium carbonate nanocomposites, compared with a reference calcium carbonate microcomposite, is presented. Several different nanosized calcium carbonates at different amounts were used. The results from the rheological and me- chanical tests outlined that only minor changes occur when the amount is up to 2 wt %. The use of higher filler concentrations or the increase in the processing time can significantly affect this behavior. SEM analysis allowed deeper understanding of these phenom- ena. V C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 127: 2544-2552, 2013