Abstract: The physical and mechanical properties of PELD cable materials, and their branched structure were studied. The dynamic rheological analysis was used to characterize the long chain branching index (LCBI) of the materials was used to characterize. The long and total chain branching contents were studied through extensional flow and infrared spectrometry, respectively. The study of rheological properties and crosslinking performance showed that: under the premise of similar molecular weight and the total branching content, the more the content of the short branched chain, the lower the activation energy. The short branched chain improved the processing performance and crosslinking performance. Long chain branching could result in the increase of entanglement point and activation energy. It was not conducive to crosslinking.

Key words: low density polyethylene, electric cable material, processability, cross linking