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Aramid Nanofibers Reinforced Polyacrylonitrile Nanocomposite Films with High Transparency and High Mechanical Properties

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Abstract

The preparation of polymer nanocomposites combined with high strength, toughness, and high transparency remains a challenge. Aramid fibers are often used as fiber-reinforced materials for their superior mechanical and thermal properties, but the weak interfacial force between aramid fibers and matrix polymer limits the application in composite materials. In this work, aramid nanofibers were prepared by a two-step process, which included deprotonation and acid hydrothermal treatment to obtain better dispersions in general solvents. The hydrothermal aramid nanofibers (HANFs) were used as reinforcing materials and blended with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) to prepare polyacrylonitrile/aramid nanofibers (PAN/HANFs) composite films with different mass fractions of HANFs. The morphologies of HANFs and the thermal, optical, and mechanical properties of composite films were investigated. Interestingly, when the mass fraction of aramid nanofibers was less than 1.0%, the composite films were synchronously strengthened and toughened. When the mass fraction of HANFs was 0.5%, the tensile strength and toughness of the PAN/HANFs composite film reached 62.04 MPa and 22.56 MJ/m3, which were 74.23% and 162.31% higher than the pure PAN film, respectively. Besides, its average transmittance in the visible light region remained 76.34%. This work may offer a novel and facile strategy for high transparent reinforced polymer composites, which have potential applications in high strength fiber or optical film.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Cooperation Project of Sichuan University and Zigong City (2019CDZG-3), the Science and Technology Foundation of Sichuan province (2020YFG0094 and 2020YFG0104), and Miaozi Project in Science and Technology Innovation Program of Sichuan Province (No.20-YCG045). We would like to thank the Analytical & Testing Center of Sichuan University for structured illumination microscopy work, and we are grateful to Shanlin Wang for her help with TEM images. We thank Erhui Ren for the experimental assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Biomass Science and Engineering, National Engineering Laboratory for Clean Technology of Leather Manufacture, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Xue Bai, Yinghui Zhao, Hui Chen, Sihang Zhang, Yonghui Luo, Yingchun Gu, Guo Yao & Sheng Chen

  2. Zhonghao Chenguang Research Institute of Chemistry Industry, Fushun, 643201, China

    Zhenhu Song & Shijian Tu

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  1. Xue Bai
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  2. Yinghui Zhao
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Correspondence to Guo Yao or Sheng Chen.

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Bai, X., Zhao, Y., Song, Z. et al. Aramid Nanofibers Reinforced Polyacrylonitrile Nanocomposite Films with High Transparency and High Mechanical Properties. Fibers Polym 23, 711–719 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12221-022-3218-0

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