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Polymers and Polymer Composites

MORPHOLOGY, CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE AND ISOTHERMAL CRYSTALLIZATION KINETICS OF POLYBUTYLENE TEREPHTHALATE/MONTMORILLONITE NANOCOMPOSITES

January 1, 2005 By: Defeng Wu; Chixing Zhou; Xie Fan; Dalian Mao; Zhang Bian Research article

Title: MORPHOLOGY, CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE AND ISOTHERMAL CRYSTALLIZATION KINETICS OF POLYBUTYLENE TEREPHTHALATE/MONTMORILLONITE NANOCOMPOSITES
Page Range: p.61-71
Author(s): Defeng Wu; Chixing Zhou; Xie Fan; Dalian Mao; Zhang Bian
File size: 283K
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Journal: Polymers and Polymer Composites
Issue Year: ppc
Volume: 13
Issue No: No. 1

Abstract
PBTP/montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites were prepared by the melt intercalation method, and their microstructure was characterised by wide angle X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The XRD results showed that the crystalline plane was smaller than that of unreinforced PBTP, indicating that the crystallite size of PBTP in the nanocomposites could be diminished by the addition of clay. The isothermal crystallisation kinetics of PBTP and PBTP/MMT nanocomposites was investigated by DSC. During isothermal crystallisation the development of crystallinity with time was analysed using the Avrami equation. Results indicated that the addition of very small amounts of clay dramatically increased the rate of crystallisation and high clay concentrations reduced the rate of crystallisation at the low crystallisation temperatures. Activation energies of crystallisation for PBTP and its nanocomposites were calculated by the Arrhenius relationship, and the results showed that the nanocomposites with a low clay content had the lower activation energy values than PBTP, while high amounts of clay, increased the activation energy of PBTP. 25 refs.

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