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Inorganic reinforcement in PET/silica electrospun nanofibers

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Abstract

PET/silica nanocomposite fibers of high quality were fabricated from electrospinning by choosing appropriate surface modification of inorganic fillers, solution properties, and processing conditions. The existence of an immobilized layer around silane-modified silica particles in PET fibers was verified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, the results of which confirm previous thermal analysis studies. The influence of silica particles on the crystal growth during isothermal crystallization as well as the phase structure of the crystallized nanocomposite fibers were examined using differential scanning calorimetry. The PET crystallization rate increases significantly with increasing silica content, which indicates that the silica nanoparticles act as an efficient nucleating agent to facilitate PET crystallization. Using Avrami analysis, for the first time, preferred 1-D crystal growth was confirmed for geometrically confined nanocomposite fibers. Addition of silica particles makes the crystal growth more likely to occur in a 1-D manner.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the National Science Foundation, Polymers Program of the Division of Materials Research for support of this research under DMR-0602473 and the NSF MRI Program under DMR-0520655 which provided thermal analysis instrumentation. Portions of this research were conducted at Harvard University’s Center for Nanoscale Systems.

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  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Center for Nanoscopic Physics, Tufts University, Medford, MA, 02155, USA

    Qian Ma, Bin Mao & Peggy Cebe

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  1. Qian Ma
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  2. Bin Mao
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  3. Peggy Cebe
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Correspondence to Peggy Cebe.

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Ma, Q., Mao, B. & Cebe, P. Inorganic reinforcement in PET/silica electrospun nanofibers. J Therm Anal Calorim 109, 1245–1251 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-012-2582-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-012-2582-1

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