Effect of Nanoclay on the Mechanical Behavior of Compatibilized Ethylene Vinyl Acetate Copolymer / High Density Polyethylene Blends

This paper presents a part of research on the mechanical properties of compatibilized Poly (ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (EVA)/ high density polyethylene (HDPE)/ organo modified montmorillonite (OMMT) nanocomposites prepared by melt mixing technique. Use of maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene (MA-g-PE) as Compatibilizer improves compatibility of EVA and HDPE. Blends containing EVA/HDPE blend with 2 phr MA-g-PE shows optimum properties. It observes that the addition of nanoclay improves the mechanical properties like tensile strength, flexural modulus, abrasion resistance and hardness of compatibilized nanocomposites systems. The morphology is studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The optimized properties occurrs at clay loading levels of 4 phr with MA-g-PE system.