Crystallization and thermal behavior of multiwalled carbon nanotube/poly(butylenes terephthalate) composites

Abstract

Abstract Multiwalled carbon nanotube/poly(butylene terephthalate) composites (PCTs) were prepared by melt mixing. The nonisothermal crystallization and thermal behavior of PCTs were respectively investigated by X‐ray diffractometer, polarized optical microscope, differential scanning calorimeter, dynamic mechanical thermal analyzer, and thermogravimetric analyzer. The presence of nanotubes has two disparate effects on the crystallization of PBT: the nucleation effect promotes kinetics, while the impeding effect reduces the chain mobility and retards crystallization. The kinetics was then analyzed using Ozawa, Mo, Kissinger, Lauritzen‐Hoffman, and Ziabicki model, and the results reveal that the nucleation effect is always the dominant role on the crystallization of PBT matrix. Thus the crystallizability increases with increase of nanotube loadings. In addition, the presence of nanotubes nearly has no remarkable contribution to thermal stability because nanotubes also play two disparate roles on the degradation of PBT matrix: the Lewis acid sites to facilitate decomposition and the physical hindrance to retard decomposition. Hence the nanotubes act merely as inert‐like filler to thermal stability. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2008. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers