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Through a very facile route, a new class of nanocomposites involving poly(trimethylene terephthalate; PTT) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) was developed which was found to be high performance engineering material showing high modulus. Morphological, mechanical, viscoelastic, and thermal properties of the PTT nanocomposites with varying compositions of MWCNT were systematically studied and the results were analyzed. The dynamic mechanical and tensile properties of all the nanocomposites were seen to be enhanced with the addition of MWCNT and the sample containing 2 wt% MWCNT showing a storage modulus as much as 9.4 × 108 GPa. The results were correlated with the morphological features obtained from scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Coefficient of effectiveness, degree of entanglement density, and reinforcement efficiency factor were estimated from the storage modulus values and, in addition, the degree of chain confinement also could be quantified. Furthermore, theoretical modelling was also done on the elastic properties of the composites. The crystallization temperature, glass transition temperature, and percentage crystallinity were estimated for all the nanocomposites and it was found that the sample with 3 wt% MWCNT content exhibited the highest glass transition temperature of 68.2°C. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:E435–E445, 2019. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers

In the present work the formation of nano-composites by blending an insulator polymer, poly (trimethylene terephthalate), PTT, with a conducting nano-filler (multiwalled carbon nanotubes, MWCNT) is studied and their surface properties, especially wettability and morphology, are investigated. The PTT/MWCNT nanocomposites show significant enhancements in their nonwettability with the highest water contact angle (θ) of 115° for the PTT/0.5%MWCNT composite, compared to 74° for PTT. Since MWCNT is hydrophobic in nature no correlation of MWCNT content with θ value is seen but a direct correlation of θ with surface roughness data obtained from scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy studies could be made. Various wettability parameters including total surface free energy, work of adhesion, interfacial free energy, spreading coefficient and Girifalco-Good's interaction parameter were also evaluated for the nanocomposites. Highlights• Effect of conducting filler MWCNT on the surface properties of an insulating polymer PTT was investigated by developing a series of their nano-composites. • Water contact angle θ, wetting parameters like γ s , W A , Sc, φ could be evaluated and surface roughness of the composites could be found out by SEM and AFM. • Attempt was made to correlate the non-wetting properties of PTT/MWCNT nanocomposites with the MWCNT content and also with the surface morphology/roughness of the composites. • A significant enhancement in hydrophobicity is seen by incorporating just 0.5% MWCNT in PTT with θ value going up to 115° compared to 74° for neat PTT.