Relaxation behavior study on PET and PET/Ti₃N₄ nanocomposites

Key Laboratory of Materials Physics and Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanostructures, Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 1129, Hefei 230031, P.R.China

^a e-mail: shkang@issp.ac.cn
^b e-mail: gtfei@issp.ac.cn

Received: 11 October 2013
Revised: 10 February 2014
Accepted: 10 February 2014
Published online: 24 March 2014

Abstract

The relaxation behavior of neat PET and PET/Ti₃N₄ nanocomposites was investigated by means of internal friction. The temperature dependence of internal friction exhibit two relaxation peaks i.e. α and β peaks, and both heights of the peaks first increase and then decrease with increasing concentration of Ti₃N₄ nanoparticles. However, the peak temperature and activation energy for α and β peaks show different change trends with increasing concentration of Ti₃N₄ nanoparticles, which associated with the changes of nucleation and crystallization of the PET due to the addition of nanoparticles. Further increasing the concentration of Ti₃N₄ nanoparticles, a third peak, α′ located at the temperature between α and β peaks appears in the PET/Ti₃N₄ nanocomposites, which may be a physical aging peak.