High-Energy Mechanical Milling of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE)

Abstract

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) is a polyethylene with a very long chain, which provides excellent features, however it makes the processing difficult due to high melt viscosity. Many studies intend to found out means to make its processing easier. Recently, the high-energy mechanical milling has been used for polymeric materials and it was detected that physical and chemical changes occur during milling. In such case, powder of UHMWPE was milled in three types of mills: SPEX, attritor e planetary, in different times of milling. The polymer was characterized by SEM and XRD. Thus, it was observed that the material processed in attritor mill showed larger phase transformation from orthorhombic to monoclinic. This is most likely due to the smaller milling temperature of attritor mill when compared with the other two mills and the high shear force generated during milling.