EFFECT OF SILANE FUNCTIONALIZED POLYETHYLENE STRUCTURE ON PROPERTIES OF MOISTURE-CROSSLINKED COMPOSITIONS AND CABLE CONSTRUCTIONS

摘要

Different types of alkoxysilane functionalized ethylenic polymers are discussed herein,with reactor ethylene silane copolymer being preferred to silane grafted technologies fromthe perspective of shelf life at ambient conditions as well as extrusion characteristics during cable manufacturing.The properties o f wire and cable constructions (in which the sheaths around the conductors were made of moisture-crosslinked alkoxysilane functionalized ethylenic polymers) have been foundto be satisfactory.Cros slinking of the silane functionalized polymer was induced through the use o f a silanol condensation catalyst.The polymer characteristics that were observed to influence the properties of the crosslinked polymeric formulations (and cable constructions) included melt indexand molecular we ight distribution.