Effects of oxidative functionalized and aminosilanized carbon nanotubes on the crystallization behaviour of polyamide-6 nanocomposites

The purpose of this study is to investigate effects of oxidative functionalized and aminosilanized carbon nanotubes on the (1) isothermal and (2) non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of polyamide-6 by DSC analyses, and (3) crystal structure of injection molded specimens by XRD analyses. Nanocomposites were compounded by using melt mixing technique via twin screw extrusion. Due to basically very effective heterogeneous nucleation effect, both increasing amount and surface functionalization of carbon nanotubes by oxidation and aminosilanization resulted in higher relative crystallinity for all three cases. The increases were as much as 40 % for the isothermal and non-isothermal crystallization, and it was up to more than two times in the injection molding. Crystallization parameters and Avrami constants indicated that crystallization rate increases in isothermal crystallization while it decreases in non-isothermal crystallization due to the delayed conformational mobility of polymer chains via physical hindrance of carbon nanotubes. Parameters also revealed that growth mechanism of crystallites might change during isothermal crystallization while there was no significant change during non-isothermal crystallization. XRD deconvolution analyses indicated that during injection molding, due to the constraints of carbon nanotubes only alpha-crystal structure was formed.