Enhancing the mechanical features of poly(vinyl) alcohol nanofibers with the addition of boron nitride

Abstract

Improvement of nano-sized products with boron additives with remarkable properties has become a popular trend for many different application areas. Here, we have reported an efficient poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) based composite nanofiber which was functionalized with the hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) via electrospinning technique, for the first time as far as known, for body-armor and protective clothing applications. PVA-based composite nanofibers containing h-BN with a diameter of approximately 326 nm have shown significant mechanical features compared to pure PVA nanofibers with a diameter of about 223 nm. Mechanical features were investigated by nanoindentation and the results of nanoindentation demonstrated that the elastic modulus of PVA nanofibers increased by 77%, and hardness values of polymeric nanofibers reached ten times more, by the addition of h-BN. FTIR and XRD characterizations approved that there is no chemical change of h-BN when it was integrated into the PVA based composite nanofibers. We exceptionally believe that the achieved results offer a potential lightness and cost-effective strategy for body armor and protective clothing applications in contrast to boron carbide-based body armor products, which have main problems such as weightiness and high-priced.