Study on mechanical properties of polyethylene with chain branching in atomic scale by molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

The effects of length and content of chain branching on the mechanical properties of polyethylene (PE) in atomic scale were examined by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Methyl-, ethyl- and butyl-groups were adopted as branched chains to distribute along PE backbones. Plastic flow deformation was captured by providing a uniaxial tensile loading at a given strain rate, which shows the characteristic of rate dependence. Current results are in reasonable agreements with existing experimental data. The statistical results show that the longer length of chain branching induces lower equilibrium density and higher yield strength of branched PE. In addition, higher content of chain branching brings higher equilibrium density and lower yield strength of branched PE. It is assumed that the distribution of dihedral angles influences the deformation of PE definitely. The non-bond interactions contribute to the load-bearing capacity of PE largely. Branched PE shows big differences on mechanical behaviours comparing with the linear one. Chain branching distribution also greatly affects the performance of PE, which needs a further discussion.

Keywords:

• Chain branching
• polyethylene (PE)
• mechanical properties
• molecular dynamics (MD) simulation
• atomic scale

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The computations were supported by the Computing Facility, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.