solvent for HDPE
solvent for HDPE
(OP)
Hi
does anybody know a good solvent for HDPE other than xylene?
I need to solution impregnate a woven fabric with HDPE and I am after a solvent which is less harmful to health and environment and if possible with a lower boiling point.
any ideas?
Thanks!
does anybody know a good solvent for HDPE other than xylene?
I need to solution impregnate a woven fabric with HDPE and I am after a solvent which is less harmful to health and environment and if possible with a lower boiling point.
any ideas?
Thanks!





RE: solvent for HDPE
Back when I did fibre analysis for fibres in mixture, we used all sorts of solvents to remove certain fibres, including Formic acid for nylons and boiling 90% phenol for PET. I never found a way to remove PE or PP and presumed anything left was one of those. This was then confirmed with a melting point test and was the only way short of IR to test for PE in a yarn or fabric.
Regards
Pat
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RE: solvent for HDPE
thanks for your reply and I agree that PE is a difficult one. I have found academic R&D indicating that xylene will dissolve low density PE at temperatures around 70C / 160F but I haven't tried this myself. I assume that xylene will work on HDPE as well.
did you try xylene for PE or PP by any chance? Perhaps at higher temperatures?
Regards,
Claus
RE: solvent for HDPE
HDPE will be more difficult than LDPE due to the increased strength of the bonds due to higher crystallinity. Also of course the reason behind the higher melting point of HDPE.
Regards
Pat
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RE: solvent for HDPE
The first link is to information on Polywas and some discussion about solvents, all bad. The second link is to method for recovering various plastics.
The third link is to information on P.E. dispersions that you might want to look into.
ht
htt
http://www.crayvallac.com/products.html
patprimer,
If you ever have to clean up P.E. residue you need to get a Pyrolysis Oven which can een clean glassware.
RE: solvent for HDPE
thanks for taking time to advice on this. It was very interesting reading about the recycling method - which also confirms that xylene is a solvent for HDPE although at even higher temperatures.
recyclability is one of several reasons that I am now looking at thermoplastics to replace some thermoset coating or impregnation resins used for textiles.
I need to test different impregnation methods against each other, one is a solvent borne dispersion, another involves a solution of 10-20 wt% of PE in a heated solvent such as xylene.
I might even have used the PE solution from that recycling plant but I guess the M.W. distribution will be too wide. I have a narrow temp window for heat consolidation.
I guess I wil use xylene for my tests, this seems to be a well proven solvent.
Also thanks for the 2 other links, although I'm not sure I understand what "wax" in Polywax refers to. They are referred to as linear, highly crystalline saturated PE homopolymers. That tells me they should be pellets or powder. yet they cal them waxes. what am I overlooking here?
regards,
Claus
RE: solvent for HDPE
Regards
Pat
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RE: solvent for HDPE
RE: solvent for HDPE
The fourth link is to a patent that combines Nylon and Polyethylene. I don't recall working on this project which is one many projects to combine Nylon.
http://www.dow.com/inspecpolymers/prod/polyox.htm
http://
http://www.fabrene.com/profile.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5913993.html
You concern about nasty solvents some Non-Woven Nylons are bonded using HCl sand temperature. A process I developed for cleaning Nylon Polymerization Equipment using molten Adipic Acid. This not very nice stuff but fortunately when we add the Adpic to the process it is enclosed.
RE: solvent for HDPE
Chris DeArmitt PhD FRSC CChem
www.phantomplastics.com
Consultant to the plastics industry