Manufacturing of multilayer graphene oxide/poly(ethylene terephthalate) nanocomposites with tunable crystallinity, chain orientations and thermal transitions

Jamal Seyyed Monfared Zanjani, Burcu Saner Okan* (Corresponding Author), Yusuf Menceloglu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Thermally exfoliated graphene oxide (TEGO) reinforced polyethylene terephthalate (PET) nanocomposites with controlled crystallinity, chain conformations and thermo-mechanical properties were produced with very low TEGO weight fractions by a twin-screw compounding extruder. Tensile modulus was found to increase by 52% by the addition of 1 wt% TEGO. This significant increase in mechanical properties of PET nanocomposites was explained by well intercalation of PET chains through multi-layer graphene sheets and complete coverage of graphene surface by electrostatic interactions. An increase in the ratio of gauche and trans conformations in PET chains indicated that PET nanocomposites became more crystalline by increasing TEGO amount. Transmission electron microscopy observations showed the favorable interaction between TEGO sheets and PET matrix facilitating the dispersion and flattening of graphene sheets into polymeric matrix during elongation. The integration of 1 wt% TEGO sheets into PET matrix enhanced heat distortion temperature from 71 °C for neat specimen upto 91.6 °C at the constant stress of 0.45 MPa, and increased Vicat softening point from 76 °C upto 95 °C. Therefore, the failures of PET considerably reduced by improving short-term heat resistance and its softening properties between glass transition temperature and melting temperature by the incorporation of TEGO sheets.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)58-67
Number of pages10
JournalMaterials chemistry and physics
Volume176
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jun 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Composite materials
  • Mechanical properties
  • Multilayers
  • Polymers
  • Thermal properties

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