Interactive effects of carbon nanotube and montmorrilonite reinforcement polyvinyl alcohol composite system

Abstract

This work was conducted to investigate the interactive effect of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and montmorillonite (MMT) on the mechanical–physical properties of the polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) nanocomposites. The increasing of CNTs amounts from 0.5 phr to 1 phr has gradually increased tensile strength and Young's modulus of all PVOH/MMT blends due to good interaction effect between MMT and CNTs with PVOH matrix especially for 2 phr MMT added PVOH blends. Besides, the addition of low CNTs amounts (≤1 phr) in PVOH matrix has significantly weakened the hydrogen bonding polymer matrix of all PVOH/MMT blends as evaluated in FTIR analysis. This is attributed to the good of dispersion of low amounts of CNTs could disturb the hydrogen bonding between PVOH molecules and thus induced the strength of OH stretching in PVOH matrix. However, higher amounts of CNTs (≥1.5 phr) have significantly increased hydrogen bonding in PVOH matrix due to the agglomeration of higher amounts of CNTs particles in PVOH matrix as observed in Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy analysis. From X‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy observation, the MMT particles were found to effectively exfoliate in PVOH matrix of 2 phr MMT (low amounts) added PVOH/MMT/MCNTs composites, indicates that low MMT amounts could improve the interaction effect between PVOH matrix and CNTs particles. In conclusion, the incorporation of lower amounts of CNTs has effectively improved on the mechanical and physical properties of all PVOH and PVOH/MMT blends. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 26:77–89, 2020. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers