• Woluntarski, M.
• Linares, A.
• Kurcz, M.
• Pawlikowska, D.
• Paszkiewicz, S.
• Zubkiewicz, Agata
• Lipińska, L.
• Zubkiewicz, A.
• Gude, Mike
• Piesowicz, E.
• Ezquerra, T. A.
• Szymczyk, A.
• Irska, I.
• Stanik, R.

Abstract

<jats:p>This work reports a study on the influence of graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) on the functional properties of poly(trimethylene terephthalate)-block-poly(caprolactone) (PTT-block-PCL-T) (75/25 wt.%/wt.%) copolymer, obtained from dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), 1,3-biopropanediol and polycaprolactone diol (PCL) via in situ polymerization. The article presents, if and how the reduction of graphene oxide, in comparison to the non-reduced one, can affect morphological, thermal, electrical and mechanical properties. SEM examination confirms/reveals the homogeneous distribution of GO/rGO nanoplatelets in the PTT-block-PCL-T copolymer matrix. More than threefold increase in the value of the tensile modulus is achieved by the addition of 1.0 wt.% of GO and rGO. Moreover, the thermal conductivity and thermal stability of the GO and rGO-based nanocomposites are also improved. The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurement indicates that the incorporation of GO and rGO has a remarkable impact on the crystallinity of the nanocomposites (an increase of crystallization temperature up to 58 °C for nanocomposite containing 1.0 wt.% of GO is observed). Therefore, the high performances of the PTT-block-PCL-T-based nanocomposites are mainly attributed to the uniform dispersion of nanoplatelets in the polymer matrix and strong interfacial interactions between components.</jats:p>

Topics

• nanocomposite
• impedance spectroscopy
• dispersion
• scanning electron microscopy
• differential scanning calorimetry
• interfacial
• copolymer
• thermal conductivity
• crystallization
• crystallinity
• crystallization temperature