Effect of additives on thermal properties of electron beam irradiated LDPE foam

In this work, the effects of some additives such as TMPTMA, a multifunctional monomer, and ZnO as the activator on thermal properties of electron beam irradiated LDPE foam were investigated. LDPE foams were made via adding 5 phr of azodicarbonamide as the blowing agent (ACA), 1-5 phr of ZnO and 1-5 phr of TMPTMA to the low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and then cross-linked using the 10 MeV electron beam at the dose range of 20 to 100 kGy. Effects of activator, multifunctional monomer and irradiation on thermal properties such as melting and degradation temperatures in cross-linked polyethylene foam were investigated. The thermal properties were measured by differential scanning calorimetry system (DSC).