In situ prepared PET nanocomposites: Effect of organically modified montmorillonite and fumed silica nanoparticles on PET physical properties and thermal degradation kinetics

In the present study a series of PET nanocomposites were prepared by in situ polymerization using different amounts of organically modified montmorillonite (OMMT) with a triphenylphosphine compound and fumed silica nanoparticles (SiO2). As verified by TEM micrographs, the dispersion of both nanoparticles into the PET matrix was homogeneous while montmorillonite was dispersed in the exfoliated form. The intrinsic viscosities of the prepared nanocomposites were affected by the addition of the nanoparticles and in both cases a slight increase was observed. Tensile strength was also increased by increasing nanoparticles content while both types of nanoparticles act as nucleating agents, enhancing the crystallization rates of PET. From the thermogravimetric curves it was concluded that PET and the samples with different nanoparticles presented good thermostability, since no remarkable mass loss occurred up to 320 °C (<0.5%). The activation energy (E) of degradation of the studied samples was estimated using the Ozawa, Flynn and Wall (OFW) method. Pure PET had an E = 223.5 kJ/mol while the activation energy of PET/SiO2 2 wt.% nanocomposites was almost identical (222.1 kJ/mol). However, PET/OMMT 2 wt.% nanocomposites exhibited a higher activation energy (228.3 kJ/mol), indicating that OMMT incurred a stabilizing effect upon the decomposition of the matrix. The form of the conversion function for all the studied samples obtained by fitting was the mechanism of nth-order auto-catalysis.