Preparation and Comparison of the Electron Beam and Chemical Cross-linking of High Density Polyethylene - Clay Nanocomposite

Cross linking of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and high density polyethylene – clay nanocomposite was first performed via high energy electron beam (EB) irradiation. Then, both samples were cross linked with dicumyle peroxide (DCP) and the relation of polymer cross linkingmethod with electrical properties was analyzed by different methods. So, the gelcontent of samples was determined by solvent extraction. Degree of cross linking was evaluated by hot set apparatus. It was found that, in the same amount of gel content, electrical properties of samples prepared by two kinds of cross linking methods significantly differed. These results also obtained for the relation of electrical properties like volume resistance, dielectric constant and dielectric strength with gel content for the samples containing nano clay. In other words, most of electrical properties in electron beam irradiated samples showed little change, but there were more changes with gel content for chemical cross linked samples.