Effect of silver nanoparticles on the crystallinity of polyethylene

In the current research, the effect of silver (Ag) nanoparticles on the crystallinity of polyethylene was investigated. For this purpose, Ag nanoparticles were synthesized using chemical reduction method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–visible spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The mean particle size of Ag NPs was determined about 21.7 nm. The polyethylene-silver Nano composites (PESNs) containing different Ag contents (5, 10, 20 and 30 wt%) were fabricated by mechanical milling method. After the characterization of samples by XRD and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), effect of Ag nanoparticles on the crystallinity of polyethylene was investigated by Nara and Komiya method. Results show that the crystallinity of polyethylene increases from 63.64% to 77.67% as Ag NPs content increases from 0 to 30%.