Compatibilization of immiscible nylon 6/poly(vinylidene fluoride) blends using graphene oxides

Abstract

A new strategy to compatibilize immiscible blends is proposed, using graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets taking advantage of their unique amphiphilic structures. When 0.5 or 1 wt% GOs were incorporated in immiscible nylon 6/poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) (90/10 wt%) blends, the dimension of PVDF dispersed particles was markedly reduced and became more uniform, revealing a well‐defined compatibilization effect of GOs on the immiscible blends. Correspondingly, the ductility of the compatibilized blends increased several times compared with uncompatibilized immiscible blends. In order to explore the underlying compatibilization mechanism, Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectra were applied to suggest that the edge polar groups of GOs can form hydrogen bonds with nylon 6 while the basal plane of GOs can interact with electron‐withdrawing fluorine on PVDF chains leading to the so‐called charge‐transfer C–F bonding. In this case, GOs exhibit favorable interactions with both nylon 6 and PVDF phase, therefore stabilizing the interface during GO migrations from PVDF/GO masterbatch to nylon 6 phase, which can minimize the interfacial tension and finally lead to compatibilization effects. Obviously, this work may open a broad prospect for GOs to be widely applied as a new compatibilizer in industrial fields. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry

Correlating the morphology of poly(L-lactide)/poly(butylene succinate)/graphene oxide blends nanocomposites with their crystallization behavior

“…As such, the droplet size of the PPO minor phase decreases, thus improving the ductility and mechanical strength of the blend. Yang et al [14] obtained similar results for nylon-6/poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) blends. Moreover, graphene oxide has also revealed a good nucleating ability towards several semi-crystalline polymers, including for instance isotactic polypropylene (iPP) [29][30][31], PVDF [32][33][34], PCL [35], and the two polymers object of the present study, PLLA and PBS [36,37].…”

“…At first, a suspension of GO in DMF was obtained by sonicating the mixture at 80°C for 1 h , in order to partially exfoliate the GOs into single-layer sheets [14,15,38]. The concentration of GO in the suspension was 1 mg/mL.…”

“…The mixture was finally precipitated and coagulated by the addition of 400 mL of acetone. The precipitate was washed four times with acetone, filtered under vacuum overnight, and then dried at 60°C for 24 h, yielding PBS/GO masterbatches with the desired GO concentration [14,15].…”

“…Buasri et al [11] studied the effect of TiO 2 nanoparticles finding an enhancement of physical, mechanical and thermal behavior of the blend. Recently, graphene oxide has been investigated as nano-compatibilizer and nano-reinforcement in polymer blends [14,15,27,28]. Cao et al [15] found that the addition of only 0.5 wt% of GO to the immiscible polyamide/poly(phenylene oxide) (PA/PPO) blend reduces the interfacial tension between the components, thanks to the amphiphilic nature of the graphene oxide.…”

“…More recently, the compatibilizing role of nanoparticles has been explored for nano-clay [2], titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) [11], zinc oxide (ZnO), silica (SiO 2 ), aluminium oxide (Al 2 O 3 ), silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ) [4,12], polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) [13], graphene oxide (GO), etc. [14,15]. It is often observed that these nanoparticles can concentrate at the interface between the two polymers, lowering the effective surface tension and thus enhancing the interaction between the two polymer phases [16][17][18][19].…”