The Manufacture Of PET/Silicate Nanocomposite Engineering Plastic

With the development of Poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET) and with the trend of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) nanocomposites (NPET) technology, the selection of intercalating agents and intercalation compounding techniques engineering plastic industry were studied and on the base of collaboration on NPET between Polyester Department of Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical Corporation and Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The optinium conditions for synthesis of NPET were selected and used in pilot tests in200L of reactor. several NPET samples were produced in pilot tests were provided to some enterprises for application.Firstly, three adding methods of intercalating agents:dry method, wet method and gel method, were used to prepare NPET. The experimented results indicate those as following:The molecular weigh and its distribution of The NPET produce are almost similar respectively. However, the dispersion of MMT in PET was greatly influenced by the adding method.Poor dispersion was obtained by the method,while good dispersion wasobtained by the gel method. It was shown that the montmorillonite(MMT) particles induced the rapidly crystal of PET, and the distribution of clay was likely normal distribution form AFM and TEM images. The average diameter of clay particles was in the range form30nmto70nm.Secondly, the relationships of polymerization rate, performance of NPET with MMT contents were investigated. It was shown that the polymerization rate increased with increasing MMT contents form1.0%wt to3.6%wt and then decreased when the MMT contents exceeded a critical value. The melting point and the carboxyl end group content decreased with increasing the MMT contents. The ash content and the DEG content increased with increasingthe MMT contents. The increase of MMT contentdid little affect on the molecular weight and its distribution of NPET.The crystallization temperature increased, the crystallization rate increased, and the heat deformation temperature increased distinctly with increasing MMT contents.Pilot tests on the selected method and condition were conducted. The influence of MMT contents on polymerization rate, performances and crystallization of products were similar to the experimented results conducted in10L of reactors. Compared NPET with PET, we got an increase of3～5times in crystallization rate, an increase of30℃in resist heat, and an decrease to60～70℃in mold temperature. The performances moldability of NPET were somewhat better than those of PET engineering plastic products.The fiberglass reinforced NPET was prepared and applied in two enterprises for manufacturing electric appliances. It was shown by enterprise that the process, demould, sheen of produces, stabilization, dependability and moldability were good to replace commercial PET product to some degree.