The effects of rare soil elements on the mechanical, thermal and physical properties of carbon fiber reinforced polyethylene

In this study, the effects of carbon fiber powder and rare earth elements on the mechanical, thermal and morphological properties of polyethylene, which is an important member of thermoplastics, were investigated. As polyethylene, low density (LDPE) and high density (HDPE) polyethylenes were studied separately. Lanthanum and cerium oxides with a pure of 90% and above were used as rare earth elements. First, these elements were dissolved separately in pure water, and then carbon fiber powder was mixed into these solutions. After the absorption of lanthanum and cerium into carbon fiber, these mixtures are poured into the prepared low density polyethylene solution and a thermoplastic reinforced element is developed. These reinforcing elements, which were obtained separately as lanthanum and cerium based, were dried and granulated. Then, it was mixed homogeneously with the matrix materials (LDPE and HDPE) to be used in the study separately at 5%, 10%, 20% and 30% by weight, first mechanically and then in extrusion at appropriate temperatures. These mixtures, which were homogenized in extrusion, were cooled at the exit of the extrusion and granulated by passing through the crusher. These granules obtained were pressed into molds with a plastic injection machine and standard specimen were produced. Mechanical tensile, bending, izod impact and hardness analyzes of these produced standard specimen were performed. TGA/DTA analysis was performed to determine the glass transition temperatures, melting temperatures and mass losses of the obtained mixtures. At the same time, in order to determine the bonding mechanism between the matrix and the filler, the cross-sectional images of the samples were examined by electron microscopy. Depending on the increasing amount of reinforcement elements in both LDPE and HDPE, the changes were discussed by showing graphics.