Abstracto

Crystallization Activation Energy of Polyethylene Terepthalate (PET) & Its ZnO/TiO2 Nanocomposites

Harshita Agrawal, Kamlendra Awasthib, Vibhav K Saraswata

The presented paper deals with crystallization behavior of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)-ZnO/TiO2 nanocomposites. ZnO & TiO2 nanoparticles have been synthesized by chemical method and the nanocomposites with PET have been prepared by solution casting method. The XRD analysis of ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles illustrate the average particle size as 18.93 nm and 19.31 nm, respectively. The DSC thermograms of PET- ZnO/TiO2 nanocomposites explain the crystallization behavior when the samples have been subjected to cooling after melting. The increment in cooling rate causes to lower the crystallization peak temperature. By applying Kissinger model, the crystallization activation energy could be determined. ZnO nanoparticles have been proved to be more efficient than TiO2 nanoparticles for heterogeneous nucleation in PET matrix