Abstract

Polyethylene nanocomposites were obtained by in situ polymerization using both montmorillonite (natural clay) and montmorillonite organically modified with octadecylamine (O-Clo). In this proposed methodology the clays were added directly in the reactor together with the catalytic system (metallocene catalyst and methylaluminoxane) and ethylene. The nanocomposites were characterized by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and by tensile stress-strain tests. It was found that the catalytic activity increased around 20% when natural clay was used compared with the standard polymer. But when modified clay was used the catalytic activity did not show important changes. On the other hand, XRD and TEM showed that the clays are in a disordered state and well dispersed in the polyethylene matrix. Finally, the nanocomposites showed an increase of about 30% in Young's modulus compared with the standard polymer