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Synergic Enhancement of High-density Polyethylene through Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene and Multi-flow Vibration Injection Molding: A Facile Fabrication with Potential Industrial Prospects

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Abstract

General-purpose plastics with high strength and toughness have been in great demand for structural engineering applications. To achieve the reinforcement and broaden the application scope of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), multi-flow vibration injection molding (MFVIM) and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) are synergistically employed in this work. Herein, the MFVIM has better shear layer control ability and higher fabrication advantage for complex parts than other analogous novel injection molding technologies reported. The reinforcing effect of various filling times and UHMWPE contents as well as the corresponding microstructure evolution are investigated. When 5 wt% UHMWPE is added, MFVIM process with six flow times thickens the shear layer to the whole thickness. The tensile strength and modulus increase to 2.14 and 1.39 times, respectively, compared to neat HDPE on the premise of remaining 70% impact strength. Structural characterizations indicate that the enhancement is attributed to the improvement of shish-kebab content and lamellae compactness, as well as related to the corresponding size distributions of undissolved UHMWPE particles. This novel injection molding technology with great industrial prospects provides a facile and effective strategy to broaden the engineering applications of HDPE materials. Besides, excessive UHMWPE may impair the synergistic enhancement effect, which is also reasonably explained.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21627804). The authors express sincere thanks to the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF, Shanghai, China) for kind help with WAXD and SAXS measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Rui Hong, Yi-Xin Jiang, Jie Leng, Ming-Jin Liu, Kai-Zhi Shen, Qiang Fu & Jie Zhang

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  1. Rui Hong
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  2. Yi-Xin Jiang
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  3. Jie Leng
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Correspondence to Jie Zhang.

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Hong, R., Jiang, YX., Leng, J. et al. Synergic Enhancement of High-density Polyethylene through Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene and Multi-flow Vibration Injection Molding: A Facile Fabrication with Potential Industrial Prospects. Chin J Polym Sci 39, 756–769 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-021-2545-8

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