Thermo-mechanical behaviour of functional polymer nanocomposites

Functional composites developed from polymer have found a new area of application such as in vibration damping; as a result of this development, the study of the dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) becomes critical. In this work, the DMA behaviour of polymer composites developed from using recycled density polyethylene (RLDPE) and waste bean pod ash nanoparticles (BPAnp) was studied. Dynamic moduli of storage of the developed composites at glass transition temperature were found to be 1881.42, 1922, 2624.05, 2844.7 and 2883.01 MPa for 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 wt%BPAnp. The 4 wt%BPAnp had the higher peak of loss modulus. The damping factor was shifted to a higher temperature as the wt%BPAnp increases in the formulation The RLDPE and composites at 4 wt%BPAnp showed the onset decomposition temperature (T = 5%) around 85 and 110 °C. It has been established that BPAnp can be used to improve the DMA of polymer for vibration damping application.