Nonisothermal Crystallization Kinetics of Poly(ϵ-Caprolactone)/Montmorillonite Nanocomposites

Abstract

Montmorillonites modified by hydroxyethylhexadecyldimethyl ammonium bromine were used to prepare poly(ϵ-caprolactone) (PCL)/montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites by in situ ring-opening polymerization of ϵ-caprolactone. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) analysis illustrated that an exfoliated structure of PCL/MMT nanocomposite was obtained. The nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of poly(ϵ-caprolactone) and PCL/MMT nanocomposite was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) at various cooling rates. The values of half-time of crystallization (t1/2) and crystallization rate constant (Zc) showed that crystallization rate increased with the increase of cooling rates for both PCL and PCL/MMT nanocomposite; however, the crystallization rate of PCL/MMT nanocomposite was faster than that of PCL at a given cooling rate.