Selective Localization Behavior of Carbon Nanotubes: Effect on Transesterification of Immiscible Polyester Blends

Abstract

The selective localization of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in an immiscible polymer blend has attracted much attention. If the two component polymers could react with each other, do selectively located CNTs affect those reactions? Here, an immiscible polyester blend based on polycarbonate/poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PC/PTT) is studied. CNTs introduced during melt mixing are selectively located in the PTT phase and on the phase interface during the middle stage of melt mixing. The interface‐located CNTs can act as additional substrate to catalyze or even participate in the transesterification themselves, homogenizing the phase morphology of the matrix blend. The degree of randomness of the composite systems is increased, accompanied by a reduced number‐average length of the copolymer sequences. magnified image

Selective Localization of MWCNT in Poly (Trimethylene Terephthalate)/Poly Ethylene Blends: Theoretical Analysis, Morphology, and Mechanical Properties

“…The preferential localization of MWCNT in PTT/PE blend system can be calculated thermodynamically from wetting coefficient, w a using the following Young's equation where , , and are the interfacial energies between filler and first polymer, filler and second polymer, and interfacial energy between the two polymers, respectively.…”

“…The surface energy of PTT and PE at 230 °C can be calculated from the known surface energy values of corresponding components using the equation where is the surface energy at 0 K, T is the temperature, and T c is the critical temperature (≈1000) . Surface energies of PTT at 25 °C, PE at 180 °C,and MWCNT at 20 °C obtained from the literature are tabulated in Table . Surface energy values calculated for PTT and PE at the processing temperature (at 230 °C) using Equation is shown in Table .…”

Morphology and thermal degradation studies of melt-mixed poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) biodegradable polymer blend nanocomposites with TiO2 as filler

“…The value of the wetting coefficient in Table 2 further confirms the preferred location of TiO 2 in PLA. It has generally been reported that the nanoparticles would preferably locate in the polymer which has the lowest viscosity at the mixing temperature [9,22,26,28], but in this case it seems as if the interfacial interaction played a much more dominant role in determining the preferable location of TiO 2 in PLA/PCL blends. Figure 2 and Table 3 show the TGA results of all the investigated samples.…”

“…Most of the time the nanofiller will selectively localise in one of the two blend phases in the blend, on the interface, or in one phase and on the interface. This selective localisation of the filler is controlled by differences in melt viscosity and affinity, the latter of which is closely related to the surface properties of the different components [25][26][27].…”

Selective localization of titanium dioxide nanoparticles at the interface and its effect on the impact toughness of poly(L-lactide)/poly(ether)urethane blends

“…# a has been widely used to predict the thermodynamic equilibrium distribution of nanofillers in polymer blends [25,40]. Generally, for # a > 1, TiO 2 particles are only found in PU; for # a < -1, TiO 2 particles are present only in PLLA and for -1#< # a < 1, TiO 2 particles are selectively located at the interface between PLLA and PU.…”