1.
Department of Mechanical Engineering Science, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
2.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Science Engineering and Technology, University of South Africa, Florida, South Africa
Email: ronnyt@uj.ac.za (R.T.T.); dmadyira@uj.ac.za (D.M.M.); Ngwanhm@unisa.ac.za (H.M.N.)
*Corresponding author
Manuscript received January 5, 2024; revised March 3, 2024; accepted April 5, 2024; published November 19, 2024.
Abstract—The impact of inserting various nanofillers on the mechanical, thermal, chemical, and other properties of polymers is widely investigated to attain optimal properties for several industrial applications such as in automotive, aerospace, pipelines, and others. This study investigates the effect of adding a 2% weight fraction of Carbon Nanofibers (NCFs) on the thermal, rheological, and mechanical properties of Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) and High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) processed through compression molding. The produced polymer nanocomposite samples were prepared for the Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), rheology analysis, and tensile test. The thermogravimetric results obtained showed that CNF has no major influence on the thermal stability of LDPE and HDPE. Although the rheological properties of LDPE and HDPE improved with the addition of 2 wt% CNF in terms of storage modulus, loss modulus, and complex viscosity at various angular frequencies. The tensile test results obtained showed that 2 wt% of CNF can improve the tensile strength of LDPE by 36% and HDPE by 22% as well as their specific strength by 33% and 13% respectively. The CNF proved to be a good reinforcing agent for mechanical and rheological properties of the polymer nanocomposites however not for their thermal stability improvement.
Keywords—carbon nanofiber, polymer nanocomposites, specific strength, tensile strength, thermal stability
Cite: Ronny T. Tebeta, Daniel M. Madyira, and Harry M. Ngwangwa, "The Experimental Investigation of the Effect of CNFs on the Thermal and Mechanical Properties of LDPE and HDPE,"
International Journal of Engineering and Technology, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 222-226, 2024.
Copyright © 2024 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
