Ionization–liquid‐crystalline polymer synergistically reinforced poly(ethylene terephthalate) due to interfacial compatibilization by ion–dipole interactions

Abstract

To enhance the compatibility of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)/liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) composite, thereby mechanically strengthening the PET matrix, an optimally compatibilized composite of chain-extended and-carboxylated PET ionomer and poly(4-hydroxybenzoic acid-ran-6-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid) (HBA-HNA) was successfully prepared. Upon PET carboxylated chain extension with pyromellitic dianhydride and subsequent ionization with Zn(OH) 2 , the compatibility of the composite was distinctly improved, as verified by the refined dispersed-phase morphology, increased number of refined HBA-HNA fibrils, reduced crystallinity, and improved complex viscosity. Compared with PET, the optimally compatibilized composite displayed a 70.1 and 148.7% increase in Young's modulus and tensile strength, respectively. Tentatively mechanistically, the interfacial interaction may change from weak hydrogen bonding to strong ion-dipole interactions due to the introduction of ionic groups, which remarkably boosts the interfacial compatibility, thereby achieving synergistic effects of the ionization and HBA-HNA inclusion to maximally strengthen PET. It seems that the synergistic ionization/LCP inclusion by a one-pot method establishes a promising preparation approach to commercial PET engineering resins.

Effective enhancement of poly(bisphenol-A carbonate) crystallinity with polyamide-66 ionized nucleation through ion-dipole interactions coupled with plasticization

“…Moreover, PC/CN/6.5 mol% CaCl 2 -PA-66 and PC/CN/11.4 mol% CaCl 2 -PA-66 are completely melted at 245 and 255 °C, respectively. This trend may be attributed to the higher crystallinity of these, which proves more perfect crystals and thus required a higher temperature for complete melting [43].…”

“…Comparatively, this work attempts to explore a modification method that can induce PC crystallization by simple melt processing. As previously studies shown that the improved crystallinity of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is achieved through stronger ion-dipole interactions [43,44].…”

Enhancing the crystallinity and heat resistance of poly(ethylene terephthalate) using ZnCl2‐ionized polyamide‐66 as a heterogeneous nucleator

“…Among all the studied PET nucleators, polymer‐based nucleators are generally found to be most efficient for the advancement of PET melt crystallization. Unfortunately, PET crystallization by polymer‐based nucleators remains far from its equilibrium value, presumably because of the poor compatibility resulting in the morphological restriction of large domain size and low number density of the dispersed nucleators 16–18 . In these circumstances, numerous attempts have been made to facilitate PET nucleation efficiency by boosting the PET/nucleator compatibility to create finer nucleator crystals that are more densely distributed.…”

Enhanced toughness of hydroxyapatite–poly(ethylene terephthalate) composites by immersion in water

“…48 The composites of poly(ethylene terephthalate) have been studied for various applications. [49][50][51][52][53][54] In this work, we employed poly(ethylene terephthalate) carrying carboxylate groups in some of the phenylene groups, as a water-soluble polymer containing hydrophobic moieties, to develop water-resistant composites. We focused on the effects of the hydrophilicity/ hydrophobicity balance of the polymer as well as the polymer/ HAP ratios on the water resistance of the composites in this study.…”