Synthesis and characterization of polymer composite materials based on polyethylene and CuO nanoparticles

In this work, polymer composite materials based on polyethylene of low density and specially synthesized CuO nanoparticles were prepared. Plasma discharge in the liquid phase under the action of intensive ultrasonic cavitation has been applied to synthesize CuO nanoparticles. The resulting nanoparticles were characterized by the dynamic light scattering and scanning electron microscopy. It was shown that the particles had size about 15 nm, and were stable to aggregation and sedimentation. Using these nanoparticles, a polymer composite material was obtained and characterized by scanning electron microscopy and IR analysis. It was found, that nanoparticles are gradually distributed in the polymer matrix.