Molybdenum disulfide as a filler for a polymeric matrix at an ultralow content: Polystyrene case

Abstract

For the first time, polystyrene (PS)/molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanocomposites were produced using the melt compounding technique. The nanocomposites presented better thermo stability due to improvements in heat dissipation. Mechanical evaluations of the nanocomposites showed that when only 0.002 wt% of MoS2 was added to PS, it was possible to achieve an improvement of 27, 93.7, and 100% in the tensile strength, elongation at break, and toughness, respectively. Thermo-mechanical results indicated strong intermolecular and physical interactions between filler and polymer matrix contributing to effectiveness of the reinforcement. Very low number of agglomerates was observed by microtomography and Raman spectroscopy, mainly for the system with 0.002% wt.% of MoS2. The results proved that the use of bidimensional particles, even with ultralow content (<0.05 wt%), can improve the mechanical performance of polymeric matrices by a combination of well-done particle synthesis, right choice of processing strategy and good interaction between filler and matrix.