Since its discovery in 1930 by American chemist Wallace Hume Carothers and his coworkers, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) attracted a great deal of attention by academic and industrial researchers. The new synthetic polymer, whose linear structure is built up by terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol units, was soon used for an extremely wide range of applications, such as food and beverage packaging, textile fibers, thermoforming, and fiber-reinforced plastic production. Nowadays, PET is the most common thermoplastic polymer of the wider polyester family. It is easy and cheap to synthesize, its glass transition temperature of 75 degrees C and melting temperature of 250 degrees C, coupled with a high crystallinity degree and good mechanical properties boosted the global PET production in 2014 to some 41.56 million metric tons, and it is forecasted that by 2020 its production will be approximately 73.39 million metric tons. Poly(ethylene naphthalate) (PEN) is another member of the linear polyester family. It exhibits wide structural similarities with PET but is characterized by higher transition temperatures (125 degrees C as glass transition temperature and 265 degrees C as melting temperature), and it is used in higher demanding applications. PET and PEN have a huge potential as matrix for nanocomposites because they have very good mechanical and functional properties and their cost is pretty low, thus resulting in a very high performance/cost ratio among all polymers. Several nanoparticles of different shape factors have been investigated as thermoplastic polyester reinforcement. Planar nanoparticles, such as MMT or graphene, successfully demonstrated the possibility to strongly enhance key physical properties such as heat deflection and glass transition temperatures, as well as static and dynamic mechanical performances, in addition to the improvement of gas barrier properties. Polyester nanocomposites can be produced through very different approaches, each one with its peculiarities, but conventional manufacturing processes can be adapted to allow the production of nanocomposites with tailored properties and desired performance gain/cost ratio.
Poly(ethylene terephthalate)-PET and Poly(ethylene naphthalate)-PEN
Sorrentino;Luigi;Amendola;Eugenio
2019
Abstract
Since its discovery in 1930 by American chemist Wallace Hume Carothers and his coworkers, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) attracted a great deal of attention by academic and industrial researchers. The new synthetic polymer, whose linear structure is built up by terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol units, was soon used for an extremely wide range of applications, such as food and beverage packaging, textile fibers, thermoforming, and fiber-reinforced plastic production. Nowadays, PET is the most common thermoplastic polymer of the wider polyester family. It is easy and cheap to synthesize, its glass transition temperature of 75 degrees C and melting temperature of 250 degrees C, coupled with a high crystallinity degree and good mechanical properties boosted the global PET production in 2014 to some 41.56 million metric tons, and it is forecasted that by 2020 its production will be approximately 73.39 million metric tons. Poly(ethylene naphthalate) (PEN) is another member of the linear polyester family. It exhibits wide structural similarities with PET but is characterized by higher transition temperatures (125 degrees C as glass transition temperature and 265 degrees C as melting temperature), and it is used in higher demanding applications. PET and PEN have a huge potential as matrix for nanocomposites because they have very good mechanical and functional properties and their cost is pretty low, thus resulting in a very high performance/cost ratio among all polymers. Several nanoparticles of different shape factors have been investigated as thermoplastic polyester reinforcement. Planar nanoparticles, such as MMT or graphene, successfully demonstrated the possibility to strongly enhance key physical properties such as heat deflection and glass transition temperatures, as well as static and dynamic mechanical performances, in addition to the improvement of gas barrier properties. Polyester nanocomposites can be produced through very different approaches, each one with its peculiarities, but conventional manufacturing processes can be adapted to allow the production of nanocomposites with tailored properties and desired performance gain/cost ratio.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
