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Nucleation and thermal stability enhancements in poly(ethylene terephthalate) composites influenced by graphene oxide

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Abstract

The low crystallization rate and long molding time of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) restricts its application in the field of engineering plastics. PET/graphene oxide (GO) composites were synthesized through in situ polymerization method with dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), ethylene glycol (EG) as reactants and GO as filler in order to overcome the above shortcomings. Influence of GO on the crystallization performance of PET was investigated. It was revealed GO raised the crystallization temperature and crystallization rate of PET, demonstrating the excellent nucleation capability of GO. The mechanism of PET nucleation induced by GO was investigated by Avrami equation and Hoffman-Lauritzen theory. It was obvious the crystallization behavior of PET was improved by reducing the free energy of nucleation and the fold surface free energy of PET caused by GO. Moreover, the non-isothermal kinetics of thermal decomposition of PET and PET/GO composites were studied by Friedman method. It was obvious that all of PET and PET/GO composites exhibited a fine thermal stability with no significant mass loss observed up to 370 °C (< 0.5%). The addition of GO improved the thermal stability of PET through raising the apparent activation energy, inhibiting the escape of volatile products and absorbing the degradation products in PET thermal decomposition procedure.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52173050), Science and Technology Planning Project in Panzhihua City, China (No. 2021ZD-G-10), and Sichuan Province Key Laboratory of Higher Education Institutions for Comprehensive Development and Utilization of Industrial Solid Waste in Civil Engineering, China (No. SC_FQWLY-2021-Y-13).

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  1. School of Biology and Chemistry Engineering, Panzhihua University, Panzhihua, 617000, China

    Wei Gao, Yufeng Li, Weiwei Tang, Zhe Zhang, Jun Wang & Zhenyu Wu

  2. Sichuan Province Key Laboratory of Higher Education Institutions for Comprehensive Development and Utilization of Industrial Solid Waste in Civil Engineering, Panzhihua, 617000, China

    Wei Gao & Jitao Zhao

  3. State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China

    Minggang Li

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  1. Wei Gao
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Gao, W., Li, Y., Zhao, J. et al. Nucleation and thermal stability enhancements in poly(ethylene terephthalate) composites influenced by graphene oxide. J Therm Anal Calorim 148, 2401–2415 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11873-9

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