Effect of adding polysilane on melt‐flow properties of ultra‐high molecular weight PE

AbstractThe effects of polysilane addition on the melt‐flow and mechanical properties of ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) were investigated. The kneading torque during melt process of pure UHMWPE without polysilane increased significantly with time and reached a constant value after 100 min. However, the kneading torque did not increase by addition of polysilane materials into UHMWPE, which indicates that all the polysilane materials suppress an increase in the kneading torque during melt process of UHMWPE at 200°C, especially a linear polysilane (PMPS) and a networked structure polysilane (PPSi). When using linear polysilane materials with different molecular weights, the low molecular weight polysilane (PM‐5, Mw = 500 Da) had the most dominant effect on the heat‐flow and mechanical properties of UHMWPE. UHMWPE with PM‐5 could be elongated over 1000% strain, which was the similar to the case for pure UHMWPE, although the elongation at break of UHMWPE with additions of different molecular weight PMPS was significantly decreased with increasing molecular weight of PMPS. Furthermore, the kneading torque during melt process of UHMWPE decreased with increase in the amount of PM‐5 addition, from 1 to 5 wt %. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012