Chapters authored
Nanocomposites Based on Thermoplastic Polyester Elastomers
The use of fillers in order to enhance the properties of polymers has been already well documented. Fundamentally, traditional fillers were applied to reduce the cost of the final polymeric products. Moreover, most micron-sized fillers required high loading for slight properties enhancement, thus causing problems in processing and melt flow due to the high viscosity of the obtained composite. Nanofillers might constitute the answer to the requirements made to the modern polymer materials. Nanofillers in the range of 3–5 wt% achieve the same reinforcement as 20–30 wt% of micron-sized fillers. Therefore, this study presents the influence of three different types of nanofillers that differ in shape (aspect ratio) on the morphology, electrical conductivity, and thermal stability of polyester thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) matrix, by means of poly(trimethylene)-block-poly(tetramethylene oxide) copolymer (PTT-PTMO). The morphology in this copolymer consisted of semicrystalline PTT domains dispersed in the soft phase of amorphous, noncrystallisable PTMO. The PTT-PTMO copolymer has been combined with 0.5 wt% of 1D (single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), silicon carbide (SiC) nanofibers), 2D (graphene oxide (GO), graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs)), and 3D (polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)) through in situ synthesis to obtain nanocomposites (NCs) samples.
Part of the book: Elastomers