In situ polymerization to prepare graphene-toughened monomer cast nylon composites

摘要

Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide was utilized to modify graphene oxide (GO) which was synthesized by the improved Hummers method. Monomer casting (MC) nylon/modified GO composites were prepared by an in situ anionic ring opening polymerization in this paper. The dispersion of the modified GO in nylon matrix was studied along with the mechanical and thermal properties of the composites. The results showed that the amount of sodium hydroxide had notable effects on the dispersion of the modified GO. Specifically, the incorporation of the modified GO into MC nylon enhanced the crystallization as confirmed by differential scanning calorimetric. The impact strength of the composite was improved by 66 % when 0.2 wt% of the modified GO was incorporated in the nylon matrix. Meanwhile, the tensile strength and flexural strength increased by 5 and 1.4 %, respectively. The results tested by thermal gravimetric analysis indicated that the composites had higher decomposition temperature in comparison with neat MC nylon.