Morphology, Crystallinity and Thermal Properties of Polyamide 66/Polyoxometalate Nanocomposites Synthesised Via an in situ Sol/Gel Process

Abstract

Abstract The in situ sol/gel synthesis of PA66/POM nanocomposites and their thermal and structural properties are reported. The morphology of POM and its influence on the crystallinity and thermal properties of PA66 have been investigated by means of SEM, TEM, DSC and XRD. The Liu and Kissinger models have been applied to study the non‐isothermal crystallisation kinetics and the crystallisation activation energy of the nanocomposite. The results reveal that polyoxometalates obtained in situ (5.5 nm) alter the thermal and crystallisation properties of PA66 significantly. The presence of POM leads to a thermodynamically more stable nanocomposite by reducing the amount of the metastable γ‐crystalline form of PA66. magnified image