Rheological characterisation of hydroxapatite filled polyethylene composites. Part II - Isothermal compressibility and wall slip

Abstract

NoRheological characterisation of hydroxyapatite -high density polyethylene (HA-HDPE) composites has been performed in terms of isothermal compressibility and wall slip. Addition of HA to the polymer melt decreases the compressibility of the melt. The unfilled HDPE was found to exhibit wall slip at shear stresses as low as 0.10 MPa. The flow curves of the composites showed three distinct regions: a gradient at low shear rates; a plateau region; and a gradient at higher shear rate. An increase in rheometer pressure seems to suppress the slip in composites. The 40 vol.-% HA-HDPE composite exhibited two critical shear stresses, one corresponding to wall slip, which occurs in the lower shear rate region of the flow curve, and the other corresponding to a plateau, which is identified with the stick-slip behaviour of unfilled HDPE reported in the literature. The plateau shear stress increased with filler volume fraction and this effect is attributed to the decreased compressibility of the melt. A good correlation with a negative correlation coefficient was found to exist between compressibility and shear stress in the plateau region. The slip observed in unfilled HDPE and at low shear rates in the 40 vol.-% HA- HDPE systems has been explained in terms of a low molecular weight polymer layer formed at the melt/wall interface. The large interfacial slip observed in the plateau region is attributed to complete disentanglement of adsorbed chains from free chains at the melt/wall interface at and beyond the plateau region