The dynamical viscoelasticity and tensile property of new highly filled charcoal powder/ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene composites

This article reports a dry-blending technique and extrusion method was used to produce a completely new highly filled (charcoal powder content up to 80%) charcoal powder/ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene composites. The results show that the tensile strength significantly increased from 18.7 to 104.7 MPa. It is obvious that while increasing charcoal concentration resulted in increased storage modulus, the E' reaches 26.3 GPa at charcoal powder content of 80 wt% at - 170 degrees C. Furthermore, the value of E' remains higher (the E' was about 4.5 GPa) for composites (charcoal powder content of 80 wt%) until around 120 degrees C. The tensile creep strain values are reduced by 55.3% and 55.8% compared to UHMWPE when the contents of charcoal powder are 70 wt% and 80 wt%, respectively. The composites shows lower tan delta values than the neat UHMWPE in the glass-transition temperature (T-g); this indicates that the viscoelastic energy dissipated less in the composites than in the neat polymer in the glass-transition region. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.