title: NMR relaxation and pulsed-gradient diffusion study of polyethylene nanocomposites.
abstract: We performed pulsed-gradient spin-echo nuclear-magnetic-resonance (NMR) experiments on zinc oxide filled polyethylene. The molecular weights of the polyethylene samples ranged between 808 and 33,000 gmol, and four different zinc oxide samples were used: 27-, 33-, 51-, and 2500-nm-diameter particles. The results of these experiments showed that the diffusion coefficients of the polyethylene chains did not change with nanofiller content, but a drastic change is observed in the NMR relaxation spectrum in spin-spin-relaxation experiments. At fixed zinc oxide content and polyethylene molecular weight (close to entanglement), the system with the smallest zinc oxide showed the most rigid environment. At high polyethylene molecular weights, this effect was still observable but the difference between the three investigated systems was very small, suggesting that the system was dominated by entanglements.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, MRC-205, Troy, New York 12180-3590, USA. ozisik@rpi.edu
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ozisik
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Dionne
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Picu
authors.forename: E D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: von Meerwall