Preparation PET Hybrided Materials by <i>In Situ</i> Polymerization for Delustered Fibers

Abstract

A series of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) hybrid materials with high-load TiO2 content were prepared via in situ polymerization by dispersing unmodified titanium dioxide (TiO2) in Ethylene Glycol (EG), and the influence of load TiO2 nanofillers on the physical properties of PET masterbatch was investigated. The intrinsic viscosities of the prepared PET hybrid materials were affected by the addition of the nanoparticles and in both cases a slight decrease was observed. In addition, the thermal behavior of these PET hybrid materials and neat PET was investigated using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The chemical structures of PET hybrid materials were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The TiO2 nanoparticles show well dispersibility in PET matrix. The PET hybrid material with 40wt.% TiO2 content was used as master batch to prepare full dull PET fiber with 2.5 wt.% TiO2. The melt flow ability of PET hybrid materials shows good winding and drawing performance, and also the resulted fiber has better mechanical properties than neat PET fiber. It suggests that this PET/TiO2 masterbatch by in situ polymerization may find good application for delustered fiber preparation.