Abstract
To improve the low crystallization rate and long molding cycle of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), series of PET nanocomposites incorporated small quantities of zeolites with different topologies were blended by melt compounding. The nucleation influence of 3-dimensional zeolites Y, ZSM-5 and 2-dimensional zeolite MCM-22P on the crystallization manner of PET was analyzed by non-isothermal and isothermal crystallization, quantitative evaluation of nanoparticle dispersion and morphology of nanoparticles. The results show that all PET/zeolite nanocomposites exhibit higher crystallization temperature and faster crystallization rate than PET due to large specificsurfacearea of zeolites and their superior dispersion in the PET matrix. Among them, PET/MCM-22P nanocomposites remarkably improved the crystallization behavior, thermal stability and oxygen barrier properties, which is related to the layered morphology of MCM-22P and hydrogen bond interactions between MCM-22P and PET. It is revealed that MCM-22P can provide more heterogeneous nucleation sites for PET by exfoliation in melting compounding. Furthermore, the nucleation mechanism induced by MCM-22P was investigated by the means of Mozhishen method, Avrami equation and theory of Hoffman-Lauritzen. The results indicate that the incorporation of MCM-22P can decrease the free energy of nucleation and fold surface in PET crystallization process, thus improving the crystallinity.
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