Thermally Reduced Graphene Oxide/Thermoplastic Polyurethane Nanocomposites: Mechanical and Barrier Properties.

Santiago Maldonado-Magnere,Mehrdad Yazdani-Pedram,Héctor Aguilar-Bolados,Raul Quijada

doi:10.3390/polym13010085

Santiago Maldonado-Magnere, Mehrdad Yazdani-Pedram + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13010085

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Journal: Polymers	Publication Date: Dec 28, 2020
Citations: 10	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Chile

Abstract

This work consists of studying the influence of two thermally reduced graphene oxides (TRGOs), containing oxygen levels of 15.8% and 8.9%, as fillers on the barrier properties of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) nanocomposites prepared by melt-mixing processes. The oxygen contents of the TRGOs were obtained by carrying out the thermal reduction of graphene oxide (GO) at 600 °C and 1000 °C, respectively. The presence and contents of oxygen in the TRGO samples were determined by XPS and their structural differences were determined by using X-ray diffraction analysis and Raman spectroscopy. In spite of the decrease of the elongation at break of the nanocomposites, the Young modulus was increased by up to 320% with the addition of TRGO. The barrier properties of the nanocomposites were enhanced as was evidenced by the decrease of the permeability to oxygen, which reached levels as low as −46.1%.

Highlights

Carbon-based polymer nanocomposites are versatile materials for a number of purposes such as environmental and energy applications [1,2,3]
This work consists of studying the influence of two thermally reduced graphene oxides (TRGOs), containing oxygen levels of 15.8% and 8.9%, as fillers on the barrier properties of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) nanocomposites prepared by melt-mixing processes
The oxygen content in TRGO decreases as the temperature of the reduction process is increased

Summary

Introduction

Carbon-based polymer nanocomposites are versatile materials for a number of purposes such as environmental and energy applications [1,2,3]. This is mainly due to the unique properties of carbon-based nanomaterials (such as graphene-based materials) which exhibit high electrical and thermal conductivities, excellent mechanical properties, and light weight [4]. In spite of the diversity of polymer matrices used for the preparation of carbon-based nanocomposites, thermoplastic elastomers stand out due to their unique mechanical properties [11]. Thermoplastic elastomers are polymers that present good processability and have comparable elastomeric properties to those of vulcanizable thermoset rubbers [12]

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