Carboxyl-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotube (c-MWCNT) was used to enhance the properties of poly(butylene terephthalate)/polycarbonate (PBT/PC) blends by melt blending. The c-MWCNT inhibited transesterification reactions between PBT and PC. SEM result showed that most of the c-MWCNT dispersed in the PBT matrix and partial c-MWCNT lied between the interface of PBT and PC phases. c-MWCNT promoted the crystallization of PBT due to the decreased transesterification and the heterogeneous nucleating effect, which led to a 20 ℃ increase of the crystallization temperature. DMA test indicated that the miscibility between PBT and PC decreased with the c-MWCNT loading since the inhibited transesterification. When the c-MWCNT content was 4 wt%, the yield strength of 65.9 MPa and tensile modulus of 2116MPa were achieved, which corresponded to 23.9 and 19.5% increase relative to the pure PBT/PC blend. The conductivity and dielectric properties of PBT/PC were largely enhanced by the c-MWCNT. The σ_dc values of PBT/PC improved greatly by several orders of magnitude from 10^-18 to 10^-7 when the c-MWCNT content was 2 wt%. The dielectric constant at 100 Hz for the nanocomposites increased from 2.8 to 146 when the c-MWCNT loading varied from 0.1 to 4 wt%, which improved more than 50 times.

Keywords: poly(butylene terephthalate), polycarbonate, carbon nanotube, nanocomposites