Influence of hybrid filling with short glass fibers and thermally expanded graphite on the structure and properties polyethyleneterephtalate
The effect of short glass fibers (GFs) and thermally expanded graphite (TEG), added to polyethyleneterephtalate (PET), on mechanical, including dynamical mechanical, and rheological properties, as well as the structural features of the produced composites is studied. Compounding with the PET melt is realized by reactive extrusion using a co-rotating twin screw extruder-reactor with L / D = 40. Analyzed composites contained from 15 to 60 wt. % of GFs, and the TEG concen­tration was 0.5 and 3.0 wt. It is found that hybrid filling of PET results in a synergetic increase of the tensile modulus of the composites reaching the values more than 22 GPa, as well as that of the dynamic shear modulus in a wide temperature range. Adding TEG into PET/GF composites increases the degree of binder crystallinity. An effect of an anomalous decrease in the intrinsic viscosity of PET solutions and an increase in the melt flow index of the melt composites observed at higher GF con­centrations is attributed to a deeper degradation of polymer.