Crystallization behavior of poly(trimethylene terephthalate)/multi-walled carbon nanotube composites

Excerpt

Poly(trimethylene terepthalate) (PTT) has in recent years, attracted much interest for its application in fibers and engineering thermoplastics, due to its outstanding properties such as good resilience and elastic recovery [1, 2]. As a typical semicrystalline polymer, the crystallization behavior of PTT is the primary property that affects its physical properties and processing conditions, and thus many articles have appeared describing this topic [3‐10]. In previous works, we reported the crystallization kinetics of PTT including the secondary crystallization process, and the crystallization behavior of PTT at high undercoolings was also explored [6, 7]. A series of copolyesters based on PTT with modified thermal properties have been prepared and their composition dependence of thermal properties was also presented [8‐10]. Moreover, recently increasing attention has been given to the fabrication and the property studies of polymer/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) composites due to the high aspect ratio, nanosize in diameter, very low density, excellent physical properties of CNTs, and the remarkably enhanced physical properties of the composites [11‐15]. However, so far there is a little research on the crystallization behavior of such polymer nanocomposites, especially in the nucleation effect of CNTs on the polymer matrix despite of its potential, academic, and technological values. In this communication, PTT composites with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), in which the nanotube consists of several layers of coaxial carbon tubes [16, 17], were prepared, and the influence of MWNT on crystallization of PTT matrix was discussed. To our knowledge, it is the first time that poly(trimethylene terephthalate)/multi-walled carbon nanotube composites were prepared and their crystallization behavior was presented. …