Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane and polyethylene nanocomposites and their physical characteristics

Polyethylene (PE) nanohybrids with polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) functionalized by octamethyl-, octaisobutyl- and octaphenyl-groups were prepared by a melt mixing method. Especially, we present a structure of POSS suitable for the PE system via a theoretical approach, in which a thermodynamic solubility parameter was used to study specific interaction between PE and functionalized POSS. The thermodynamic solubility parameter was calculated by Hoftyzer and van Krevelen method which was developed based on the classical Flory–Huggins theory. Thermal and mechanical properties of the nanohybrids were further analyzed to be correlated with those obtained from the theoretical results.