Effect of Clay Network Formation on Flame Retardancy of Polyethylene terephthalate/montmorillonite Nanocomposites

Considering the importance of determining potential hazards and factors that can cause anunexpected fire and due to the important role of nanotechnology to achieve more effectiveproperties, this paper presents our experiments on preparing nanocomposites based onPoly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET) and montmorillonite (MMT) as organoclay via meltblending with different clay loadings to investigate their combustion behavior. The mainobjective of this work was employing cone calorimeter as a perfect device to investigate allcombustion parameters such as time to ignition (TTI), heat release rate (HRR), mass lossrate(MLR), CO and CO2 release and peak of heat release rate (pHRR). Thermogravimetricanalysis (TGA), Cone calorimeter, limiting oxygen index (LOI) were employed to measurethermal stability and flammability of nanocomposite samples. Morphology and rheology ofclay /PET nanocomposites also were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) andTransmission electron microscopy (TEM).The relationship between decrease of intrinsicviscosity and thermal behavior of sample also was studied. Results indicate that clay networkwas formed in nanocomposites samples which strongly affected flammability of burningsamples and resulted more residue during combustion which leads to decrease in dripping ofPET during melting.