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Brittle–ductile transition of gamma-irradiated recycled polyethylenes blend

2000; Elsevier BV; Volume: 19; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0142-9418(99)00031-8

1873-2348

João Carlos Miguez Suarez, Eloisa B. Mano,

Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites

During the last few years interest in the development of new engineering materials from post-consumer polyolefins present in discarded commercial packaging has increased. These materials can be used as potential substitutes for products made from non-renewable, synthetic polymers. Our Institute has developed several such materials with good properties using plastic residues found in urban waste. One of these materials is a recycled 75/25 blend of outdoors, partially degraded low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE). The exposure of this blend to low doses of 60Co gamma-radiation improves its compression strength as a result of partial crosslinking. In this work the brittle–ductile transition temperature (BDTT) of this recycled blend was evaluated after exposure to gamma-radiation (100 and 500 kGy) in the presence of air. The experimental results show that the BDTT changes with the irradiation doses. The higher doses cause an increase in the Charpy impact values and a decrease in the BDTT. Gel permeation chromatography, mechanical tests and scanning electron microscopy were used to investigate these effects in the polymer material.