Preparation and characterization of high density polyethylene with TiO2 modified PEG 6000 filler as a landfill liner material

High-density polyethylene is an engineering polymer that is used in bottom liners of landfills. However, to be used in the environment application, it needs to have good mechanical and thermal qualities. Incorporation of inorganic fillers such as titanium dioxide into a polymer aimed at enhancing several features such as mechanical strength, thermal stability, and resistance to surface wear. In this study, HDPE preparation was carried out by adding TiO2 nanoparticles. TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized using the precursor TiCL4 and then modified with the addition of PEG 6000. Furthermore, the resulting TiO2 was used as a filler in thermoplastic HDPE. Characterization of high-density polyethylene with TiO2 filler as a landfill liner material shows an increase in mechanical and thermal properties. The HDPE sample containing 8%wt filler had the highest tensile strength, measuring at 84.72 Mpa. In contrast, the use of 6wt% filler resulted in the lowest recorded tensile strength, measuring at 56.24 Mpa. The elastic modulus had its highest increase at 8 wt% TiO2, reaching a value of 729.33 MPa. However, the addition of 6 wt% TiO2 resulted in a notable decrease in elastic modulus, with a value of 522.79 MPa. Additionally, it was observed that the highest elongation at break was achieved with a 4% weight filler, resulting in a value of 49.37%. Similar to the reduction observed in the elastic modulus value, the elongation at break exhibited a substantial decrease of 39.22% upon the addition of 6wt% TiO2. DSC scan curves for both the fabricated nanocomposite systems clearly show that they are affected by the nanofiller and its percentage fraction. There was an increase in Tm1 in the composition of 8wt% TiO2, while an increase in Tm2 occurred in 2wt% TiO2. Therefore, HDPE which is given TiO2 filler has the potential to be used as landfill liner material.