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
