Volume 16, Issue 2, 2007

MICROSTRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF SiO₂/POLYETHYLENE NANOCOMPOSITES ON LOCAL AND MACROSCOPIC SCALES

B. Lehmann^1*, J.Sustacha¹, A.K.Schlarb¹, K.Friedrich^1,2, M.Q.Zhang³ and M.Z.Rong³

¹ Institute for Composite Materials (IVW GmbH), Technical University Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany
² Present address: AMME, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
³ Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou 510275, P.R. China

^*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed E-mail: bjoern.lehmann@ivw.uni-kl.de

Received 14 December 2007; accepted 5 February 2007

ABSTRACT

High density polyethylene filled with nano-SiO₂ of different surface modification and content is investigated by nanoindentation, microindentation, scratching and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. The results of the nanoindentation are compared with respect to more macroscopic measurements in order to obtain information if the surface modification and/or the filler content significantly changes the material properties on a local scale.

Keywords: Nanocomposite, Nanoindentation, Microindentation, AFM, Scratching