Due to its excellency as electrical insulating materials,
low density polyethylene, LDPE, must have improved thermal
and mechanical properties to tolerate the worst conditions when
used in high-voltage insulation systems. One approach is the
incorporation of suitable nanoparticles particularly those with a
modified surface to meet the chemistry of LDPE matrix. Thus,
LDPE/SiO2 nanocomposites were synthesized using solvent cast
method in which different loading of functionalized and unfunctionalized
SiO2 nanoparticles were mixed with the molten
LDPE in presence of para-xylene as a solvent. The
functionalization was performed using vinyl silane as a coupling
agent. Thermal gravimetric analysis, TGA, was conducted over
the temperature range of 25-600 °C. The same instrument was
also used to perform differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)
test. For all samples, the temperature that corresponds to 10%
mass loss were extracted. Beside the TGA, dynamic mechanical
analysis (DMA) was also performed using Triton Technology
dynamic mechanical analyzer in its bending mode. In this test,
rectangular samples were heated by 5 °C/min from room
temperature to 100 °C at 1.0 Hz frequency. For the selected
temperature range, the effects of incorporating SiO2
nanoparticles, either functionalized or un-functionalized, on
storage modulus, loss modulus, and mechanical loss coefficient
of LDPE/SiO2 nanocomposites are investigated.