Efficacy of ultra-low loading of amine functionalized graphene oxide into glycidol-terminated polyurethane for high-performance composite material

Abstract

In this work, the effect of amine functionalization of graphene oxide on the physicomechanical properties of glycidol-terminated polyurethane (GPU) nanocomposites was studied. p-phenylenediamine (PPD) functionalized GO (GO-PPD) was used for the fabrication of nanocomposites with GPU by an in-situ polymerization method. Covalent functionalization of GO was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Filler content of the nanocomposites was varied from 0.05 wt% to 0.2 wt% and found the best result at 0.10 wt% loading. With the incorporation of just 0.10 wt% GO-PPD, tensile strength of glycidol terminated polyurethane (GPU) was increased by 123%, Young's modulus was found to increase by 158% and elongation at break was increased by 27%. The maximum improvement in thermal stability as observed from thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was about 16 °C. The experimental result obtained with 0.10 wt% loading of GO-PPD was compared with the same loading of GO and found that GO-PPD provides better improvement in both the thermal and mechanical properties of GPU compared to GO at the similar loading. Ultra-low loading of modified GO has a tremendous influence in physicomechanical properties of polyurethane nanocomposites. Structure-morphology relationship was established through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).