Preparation and ageing-resistant properties of polyester composites modified with functional nanoscale additives

This study investigated ageing-resistant properties of carboxyl-terminated polyester (polyethylene glycol terephthalate) composites modified with nanoscale titanium dioxide particles (nano-TiO2). The nano-TiO2 was pretreated by a dry coating method, with aluminate coupling agent as a functional grafting additive. The agglomeration resistance was evaluated, which exhibited significant improvement for the modified nanoparticles. Then, the effects of the modified nano-TiO2 on the crosslinking and ageing-resistant properties of the composites were studied. With a real-time Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) measurement, the nano-TiO2 displayed promoting effect on the crosslinking of polyester resin with triglycidyl isocyanurate (TGIC) as crosslinking agent. Moreover, the gloss retention, colour aberration and the surface morphologies of the composites during accelerated UV ageing (1500 hours) were investigated. The results demonstrated much less degree of ageing degradation for the nanocomposites, indicating an important role of the nano-TiO2 in improving the ageing-resistant properties of synthetic polymer composites.