%0 Journal Article
%T Study on Morphology, Rheology, and Mechanical Properties of Poly(trimethylene terephthalate)/CaCO3 Nanocomposites
%A Jian Wang
%A Chunzheng Wang
%A Mingtao Run
%J International Journal of Polymer Science
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/890749
%X For preparing good performance polymer materials, poly(trimethylene terephthalate)/CaCO3 nanocomposites were prepared and their morphology, rheological behavior, mechanical properties, heat distortion, and crystallization behaviors were investigated by transmission electron microscopy, capillary rheometer, universal testing machine, impact tester, heat distortion temperature tester, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), respectively. The results suggest that the nano-CaCO3 particles are dispersed uniformly in the polymer matrix. PTT/CaCO3 nanocomposites are pseudoplastic fluids, and the CaCO3 nanoparticles serve as a lubricant by decreasing the apparent viscosity of the nanocomposites; however, both the apparent viscosity and the pseudoplasticity of the nanocomposites increase with increasing CaCO3 contents. The nanoparticles also have nucleation effects on PTT¡¯s crystallization by increasing the crystallization rate and temperature; however, excessive nanoparticles will depress this effect because of the agglomeration of the particles. The mechanical properties suggest that the CaCO3 nanoparticles have good effects on improving the impact strength and tensile strength with proper content of fillers. The nanofillers can greatly increase the heat distortion property of the nanocomposites. 1. Introduction Poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT), as shown in Scheme 1, is a thermoplastic aromatic polyester. PTT offers several advantageous properties, including good tensile strength, resilience, outstanding elastic recovery, and dyeability, which makes it an ideal candidate for applications in textile fiber, carpet, and engineering plastic [1¨C4]. However, if it serves as an engineering plastic material, PTT still has some shortcomings, such as poor impact resistance at lower temperatures and low heat distortion temperature; thus, the modification of PTT with the other kind of polymers or fillers has been widely developed by researchers [5, 6]. Scheme 1: Molecular formula of PTT. Inorganic particulate nanofillers have been employed to improve the properties and/or lower costs of the polymer products. Generally, nanosized fillers are superior to their micron-sized counterparts in improving the mechanical and thermal properties of thermoplastics because of their larger interfacial area between the particles and the surrounding polymer matrix [7¨C9]. Various nanoinorganic particles, such as TiO2 [10, 11], calcium carbonate (CaCO3) [12¨C18], SiO2 [19, 20], and clay [21¨C25], are usually used as fillers in the organic/inorganic composites. CaCO3 has been one of
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijps/2013/890749/