Morphology and thermal properties of PET nanocomposite fibers by modified amine-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane

The terephthalic acid(TPA)-modified amine-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane(M-AM-POSS)/poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) nanocomposites were prepared using in-situ polymerization. The thermal decomposition temperature of the composite, measured at a 5wt% weight loss, was 350 °C and much higher than those of neat PET and AM-POSS/PET composite. The SEM observation suggests that there was an obvious phase separation in the POSS/PET composite. The nanocomposite fiber that contained 1 wt% of AM-POSS and M-AM-POSS showed a uniform dispersion at all cross sectional regions, which arose from the strong interfacial interactions between POSS and PET during the polymerization. However, at magnified region AM-POSS with distribution of 30–100 nm, the M-AM-POSS showed narrow distribution of 50–80 nm. This suggests that the particles resulted from the reaction between M-AM-POSS and PET reaction. The storage moduli retention of the nanocomposite fibers with 1 wt% of AM-POSS and M-AM-POSS at 120 °C increased by 5% and 15%, respectively, and glass transition temperature, by 4 °C and 10 °C, respectively.