A DSC Study on the Nonisothermal Crystallization Kinetics of Polypropylene/Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Nanocomposite

Abstract

The nonisothermal melt crystallization kinetics of polypropylene (PP) and polypropylene/single-walled carbon nanotube (PP/SWNT) nanocomposite were analyzed according to Avrami and Mo models. The values of half-life, corrected composite rate constant and F(T) indicated that the crystallization rate increased with the increasing of cooling rates for PP and PP/SWNT. However, the crystallization rate of nanocomposite was found to be higher than that of PP at a certain cooling rate. Nucleation efficiency defined by Fillon et al. was obtained for PP/SWNT. In addition, the effective energy barrier for the nonisothermal melt crystallization process was calculated by using the Kissinger method.