Photo-oxidative degradation of polyethylene/montmorillonite nanocomposite

Abstract Photo-oxidative degradation is critical to polymer materials. It is even the case in polymer/layered silicate nanocomposites. A UV photo-oxidative degradation study on polyethylene/montmorillonite (PE/MMT) nanocomposite was carried out by FT-IR technique. It is indicated that the rate of photo-oxidative degradation of PE/MMT nanocomposite is much faster than that of pure PE. The acceleration of photo-oxidative degradation of PE/MMT nanocomposite is due to the effect of MMT and ammonium ion, in which the effect of ammonium ion is primary. It has been found that the dispersion state (either nano- or micro-) of MMT does not seem conclusive on the acceleration of degradation. Fe 3+ modified MMT can also accelerate the photo-oxidative degradation of PE matrix.