Development of Novel Composite Material Using Waste Polyethylene Incorporated with Calcium Carbonate Obtained from Sri Lankan Calcite
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
Today, there is a great need for the reduction of polyethylene waste to reduce
environmental pollution. The main objective of this study is to develop a novel composite
material using waste polyethylene reinforced with calcite to make polyethylene/calcite
composite. Calcite taken from the Lanka Mineral and Chemicals (Pvt) Ltd. is used as the
reinforcement for the composite and low-density polyethylene obtained from waste
shopping bags is used as the polymer matrix. Sample series of octadecanoic acid-coated
calcite powder and unmodified calcite nanoparticles are used to synthesis the composite.
The in-situ deposition is used to synthesize nanoparticles from raw calcite. Calcite is
incorporated into low-density polyethylene with different ratios and properties are
characterized to obtain the optimum strength. Calcite powder is characterized using
particle size analyzer, X-ray diffractometer, and Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy.
The composite is characterized by tensile tests, compression tests, and differential
scanning calorimetry tests. Calcite nanoparticles obtained 23.2×10-9 m of average particle
size after In-situ deposition. Only the polymeric material acquired 64.57×106 N m-2 of
tensile strength and 44.62×106 N m-2 of compressive strength. Tensile strength is
increased up to 69.87×106 N m-2
, 78.98×106 N m-2
, 66.41×106 N m-2
and compressive
strength is reached to 90.58×106 N m-2
, 102.28×106 N m-2
, 75.98×106 N m-2 when
polyethylene combined with raw calcite powder, calcite nanoparticles, and surfacemodified calcite powder (5:3 of polyethylene/calcite ratio) respectively. It provides
evidence that the low-density polyethylene with calcite reinforcement attained to better
mechanical properties than only the polymeric material.
Keywords: Low-density polyethylene, Nanoparticles, Surface modified, In-situ deposition
Description
Keywords
Materials Sciences, Mineral Sciences, Pollution