Nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of poly(butylene succinate) composites with a twice functionalized organoclay

Composites of poly(butylene succinate)(PBS) with an organophilic clay having a special functional group, namely twice functionalized organoclay (TFC), were prepared. TFC was produced by treating the commercially available organoclay (Cloisite25A) (C25A) with (glycidoxypropyl)trimethoxy silane (GPS). The nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of neat PBS and PBS/clay composites were investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The nonisothermal crystallization process of PBS, PBS/TFC, and PBS/C25A composites could be represented by the Avrami equation modified by Jeziorny1 and the method developed by Liu et al.2 The crystallization rate decreased in the order of PBS/TFC> PBS/C25A> neat PBS at a given cooling rate. TFC exhibited higher nucleation activity than C25A for the crystallization of PBS. The activation energies of the crystallization estimated by the Kissinger method were 154.4, 128.2, and 107.5 kJ/mol for PBS, PBS/C25A, and PBS/TFC, respectively. The facilitated crystallization of PBS in the presence of TFC was attributed to the nucleation effect of the well dispersed TFC layers. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 43: 817–826, 2005