Abstract

In recent years, the area of polymer nanocomposites based on organically modified clay has attracted much interest in academia and industry because of their peculiar and fascinating properties. Nanomaterials are presently considered to be high potential filler material, with high aspect ratio and extremely large surface area. They improve mechanical and physical properties of polymers. Lighter, thinner, stronger and cheaper structures are the goals of materials science and engineering applications nowadays. Appropriate addition of nanoparticles to a polymer matrix can enhance its performance by simply focussing on the nature and properties of the nanoscale filler. So, the properties of polymer nanocomposites depend greatly on the chemistry of polymer matrix, nature of nanofillers and the way in which they are prepared. Various analysis techniques were used to characterize the dispersion and the properties of the nanocomposites, using XRD, TGA, SEM, DSC, TEM, DMTA, etc. Several polymers such as polypropylene, polyamide 6, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polylactic acid (PLA), etc., have been tested as matrices. This paper emphasises on the overview of the crystallization properties of PET/clay nanocomposites by different authors. It has been reported that nanoparticles of clay dispersed in PET polymer matrix act as nucleating agent. In this way, they enhance the crystallization rates of PET/clay nanocomposites.

Key words: Nanocomposites, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), clay, crystallization.