Morphological and thermal evaluation of blends of polyethylene wax and paraffin

• Thermal properties of polyethylene wax and paraffin were investigated.
• The blends were characterized by DSC, XRD and DMTA.
• The melting temperatures were between those of the pure constituents.
• The crystallinity decreased with addition of polyethylene wax.
• The softening temperatures did not vary linearly with the composition.

The thermal behavior and the morphology of blends of polyethylene wax and paraffin were investigated to evaluate the feasibility of using these materials to obtain a new temperature-indicating device to use in order to indicate failures in electrical connections due to overheating. The samples were evaluated with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). The results showed that the crystallinity decreases as the concentration of polyethylene wax increases. In the compositions tested, the components were not miscible in the crystalline phase, and these compositions exhibited solid/liquid transitions at temperatures between those of the individual components.