

FOLLOWUS
Shandong Key Laboratory of High Performance Polyolefin Materials and Recycling, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Polymer and Manufacturing Technology, Key Laboratory of Rubber-Plastics (Ministry of Education)/Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Rubber-plastics, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China
hfshao@qust.edu.cn (H.F.S.)
zhangxinping@qust.edu.cn (X.P.Z.)
ahhe@qust.edu.cn (A.H.H.)
Received:28 July 2026,
Accepted:28 August 2026,
Online First:11 November 2026,
Published:2026-10
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Wang, Z. C.; Xing, Y. H.; Meng, Y. C.; Peng, B.; Shao, H. F.; Zhang, X. P.; He, A. H. Hierarchical phase-crystalline structure construction and gas barrier properties enhancement of high-density polyethylene/trans-butadiene-co-isoprene rubber composites. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3867-3
Zi-Cheng Wang, Yu-Hang Xing, Yu-Chen Meng, et al. Hierarchical Phase-crystalline Structure Construction and Gas Barrier Properties Enhancement of High-density Polyethylene/
Wang, Z. C.; Xing, Y. H.; Meng, Y. C.; Peng, B.; Shao, H. F.; Zhang, X. P.; He, A. H. Hierarchical phase-crystalline structure construction and gas barrier properties enhancement of high-density polyethylene/trans-butadiene-co-isoprene rubber composites. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3867-3 DOI:
Zi-Cheng Wang, Yu-Hang Xing, Yu-Chen Meng, et al. Hierarchical Phase-crystalline Structure Construction and Gas Barrier Properties Enhancement of High-density Polyethylene/
With the growing demand for advanced materials with excellent gas barrier properties
mechanical performance
and processability
the development of high-performance rubber-plastic composites has become increasingly crucial. In this study
a series of rubber-plastic composites of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and
trans
-butadiene-
co
-isoprene rubber (TBIR) with different phase structures were designed
via
two processing routes: dynamic vulcanization (DV) and conventional vulcanization (CV). The dynamic vulcanization process effectively induces phase inversion between the rubber and plastic phases
forming a typical "sea-island" structure
where HDPE serves as the continuous phase and TBIR as the dispersed phase. With an increase in the HDPE content
the size of the dispersed TBIR particles became more uniform and finer
which contributed to the comprehensive performance enhancement of the composites. This unique microstructure enables the composites to maintain a relatively high tensile strength and modulus
while significantly improving the gas barrier performance. Specifically
the permeability coefficients of N
2
O
2
and CO
2
decrease remarkably with an increase in HDPE
gradually approaching those of pure HDPE. In contrast
the conventionally vulcanized samples maintained a rubber-continuous phase at low HDPE contents
leading to only limited improvement in the gas barrier properties. This study confirms the feasibility of regulating the microstructure of HDPE/TBIR composites through dynamic vulcanization
which provides a theoretical and experimental basis for the development of high-performance gas-barrier materials and their potential applications in various barrier-related fields.
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