Multiwall‐carbon‐nanotube‐reinforced poly(ethylene terephthalate) nanocomposites by melt compounding

Abstract

Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) nanocomposites reinforced with multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were prepared through melt compounding in a twin-screw extruder. The presence of MWCNTs, which acted as good nucleating agents, enhanced the crystallization of PET through heterogeneous nucleation. The incorporation of a small quantity of MWCNTs improved the thermal stability of the PET/MWCNT nanocomposites. The mechanical properties of the PET/MWCNT nanocomposites increased with even a small quantity of MWCNTs. There was a significant dependence of the rheological properties of the PET/ MWCNT nanocomposites on the MWCNT content. The MWCNT loading increased the shear-thinning nature of the polymer-nanocomposite melt. The storage modulus and loss modulus of the PET/MWCNT nanocomposites increased with increasing frequency, and this increment effect was more pronounced at lower frequencies. At higher MWCNT contents, the dominant nanotube-nanotube interactions led to the formation of interconnected or networklike structures of MWCNTs in the PET/MWCNT nanocomposites.

Impact of carbon nanotubes addition on electrical, thermal, morphological, and tensile properties of poly (ethylene terephthalate)

“…These improvements were followed by a slight drop in r u at 0.6 and 0.8 wt% of MWCNT loading. A similar study conducted by Kim et al [32] investigated the effect of A-MWCNTs loading on the mechanical properties of a PET matrix. The authors reported that 10 % enhancement for both r u and E at 0.5 wt% CNTs.…”

The formation of a nanohybrid shish-kebab (NHSK) structure in melt-processed composites of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)

“…uniaxial deformation, injection moulding, melt spun fibres and shear flow) [12,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. In these studies, the MWCNTs are aligned with the polymer chains during processing (under shear flow), and so oriented NHSK morphologies are seen, where again the MWCNTs act as oriented nucleation sites for epitaxial crystallization.…”

Mechanical properties of PET composites using multi-walled carbon nanotubes functionalized by inorganic and itaconic acids

“…The morphology of the MWCNTs oxidized by a sequential treatment based on diluted HNO 3 followed by H 2 O 2 (treatment B, Figure 4b) is similar to that of the as-received MWCNTs, indicating that structural damage is either absent or small. For the MWCNTs oxidized by the concentrated mixture of HNO 3 and H 2 SO 4 (treatment C), the CNTs exhibit severe structural damage, as shown in Figure 4c. This concentrated mixture of acids causes conversion of the original graphitic structure to amorphous carbon with the consequent increase in CNT roughness and waviness as observed in Figure 4c.…”