Effect of nanoscale SiO2 and ZrO2 as the fillers on the microstructure of LLDPE nanocomposites synthesized via in situ polymerization with zirconocene

In the present study, the nanoSiO2 and nanoZrO2 were used as the fillers for linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) nanocomposites. In fact, the LLDPE nanocomposites were synthesized via the in situ polymerization of ethylene/1-octene with a zirconocene/MAO catalyst in the presence of the fillers. The LLDPE–nanocomposites were further characterized by means of TEM, DSC, 13C NMR and XPS. It was found that productivity increased more when the nanoZrO2 filler was applied. The similar distribution for both fillers was observed by TEM. Based on the 13C NMR results, it appeared that the LLDPE nanocomposites obtained from both fillers were random copolymer. In particular, the resulted binding energy and elemental concentration at surface obtained from XPS measurement were further discussed in more details.