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Graphene/polyethylene terephthalate nanocomposites with enhanced mechanical and thermal properties

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Abstract

Nanocomposites made of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) were fabricated through micro-compounding and micro-injection molding. With an objective of improving the interactions between GNP sheets and PET chains, PET pellets were ground into a fine powder. PET pellets and powders were mixed with GNPs at 2%, 5%, 7.5%, and 10% (wt.%), molded to fabricate the nanocomposites, and then tested using several analytical characterization tools. Mechanical testing showed greater improvement through powder mixing, resulting in a 58% increase in the elastic modulus of the nanocomposites at 10% weight fraction. Thermal behavior of the nanocomposites was evaluated through differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and it was observed that addition of GNPs into PET powders at 10% increased the crystallinity of the PET 50%. Confocal microscopy confirmed that mixing GNP with PET powders results in a more uniform distribution of the GNPs in the matrix compared to the mixture with PET pellets. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the presence of GNPs with preferred orientation within the PET matrix.

GNP distribution analysis in melt-compounded PET nanocomposites

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Angstron Materials for providing N006-p grade graphene nanoplatelets. We also, acknowledge Dr. Ranji Vaidyanathan, professor at the Materials Science and Engineering department at OSU, and Mr. Brent Johnson, an associate at OSU Microscopy Lab, for their continuous support and help with DSC testing and confocal microscopy imaging. This work is part of an industry-sponsored research program at Oklahoma State University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Helmerich Advanced Technology Research Center, Oklahoma State University, Tulsa, OK, 74106, USA

    Vahid Shabafrooz, Masoud Allahkarami & Jay C. Hanan

  2. Research and Development, Niagara Bottling, LLC, Ontario, CA, USA

    Sudheer Bandla, Masoud Allahkarami & Jay C. Hanan

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  1. Vahid Shabafrooz
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  2. Sudheer Bandla
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  3. Masoud Allahkarami
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Correspondence to Jay C. Hanan.

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Shabafrooz, V., Bandla, S., Allahkarami, M. et al. Graphene/polyethylene terephthalate nanocomposites with enhanced mechanical and thermal properties. J Polym Res 25, 256 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-018-1621-4

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