Functional Polymer Hybrid Nanocomposites Based on Polyolefins: A Review

Abstract

For the last twenty years, polymer hybrid nanocomposites have enjoyed unflagging interest from numerous scientific groups and R&D departments, as they provide notable enhancement of properties, even at low nanofillers’ content. Their performance results from many factors, the most important of which is the uniform distribution in the entire volume of the matrix, that still is very challenging, but is the right choice of two types of nanoparticles that can lead to an increase of dispersion stability and even more uniform distribution of fillers. The incorporation of two types of nanofillers, especially when they differ in aspect ratio or chemical nature, allows to additively reduce the price of the final composite by replacing the more expensive filler with the cheaper one, or even synergistically improving the properties, e.g., mechanical, thermal, and barrier, etc., that can extend their usage in the industry. Despite numerous review papers on nanocomposites, there is no review on how the introduction of a hybrid system of nanofillers affects the properties of polyolefins, which are the most commonly used engineering plastics. This review deeply focuses on the structure–properties relationship of polyolefins-based hybrid nanocomposites, especially based on two types of polyethylenes (low-density polyethylenes (LDPE) and high-density polyethylenes (HDPE)) and polypropylene.