Determination of Glass Transition Temperature for Polyester/Graphene Oxide and Polyester/Graphite Composite by TMA and DSC

Abstract

The influences of oxide grapheme and grapheme in thermosetting polymer composites are complex and they very much depend on the chemical bonds formed between the additives and the polymer matrix. This study has used polyester as polymeric matrix and oxide grapheme and graphite as additives. Determination of glass transition temperature (Tg) is important for practical uses of polyester composites due to the changes of characteristics triggered by transition, thus the polymer passes from elastic to plastic state. In order to determine the Tg we used TMA, DSC, DMA tests. The differences in determined Tg values for the same composite are due to different measurements as resulted from each test.