Influence of thermal processing on the perfection of crystals in polyamide 66 and polyamide 66/clay nanocomposites

A study of the changes in crystal perfection of polyamide 66 (PA66) and polyamide 66/clay nanocomposites (PA66CN) due to different thermal processing was carried out. We designed three series of thermal processing including melt-quench (MQ), post-annealing MQ sample (MQA), and melt–slow cooling–annealing (MSA). The annealing temperature was set as 180 or 210 °C, which is within Brill temperature range of PA66. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) were employed to characterize the perfection in short-range order and long-range order structures, respectively. The results showed that the crystal perfection of PA66 and PA66CN with different thermal processing is quite different, and the changing fashions with thermal processing for different ordered structures are not similar. In this work, MSA is optimal thermal processing for high crystallinity and crystal perfection. Exfoliated nanoclay layers exert considerable impact on the perfection of long-range ordered structures, but little on that of short-range ordered ones.