Fabrication of Porous Polyethylene by Two-Stepped Heat Treatment and Powder Printing Technique

Abstract

In this study, a combination of powder printing technique and two-stepped heat treatment was utilized as a mean to prepare porous high density polyethylene structure. Physical and mechanical properties of the resulting structure were then characterized by porosity measurement and monotonic tensile test. It was found that the relationship between structure and properties was strongly influenced by processing conditions including compositions, treatment times and treatment temperatures. This process could increase the properties of porous high density polyethylene significantly over the single-stepped heat treatment without destroying porous structure. Porous high density polyethylene bodies having a porosity ranging from 46-58 percents with tensile strength up to approximately 4 MPa could be successfully prepared in this study.