Preparation and characterization of graphene filled polycaprolactone/poly(vinyl chloride) nanocomposites

Polycaprolactone/poly(vinyl chloride) (pcl/pvc) and graphene nanoplates/polycaprolactone /poly(vinyl chloride) (gnps/pcl/pvc) composites films/sheets were prepared by solution casting technique. the gnps were functionalized by acid treatment,which introduce carboxyl functional group. the scanning electron microscope (sem) images of neat pvc and gnps/pcl/pvc nanocomposites illustrated that there is no obvious phase separation occurred between pcl and pvc,and seemed to be miscible. the sem micrographs also presented that the gnps are uniformly distributed and embedded within the pcl/pvc blend. the differential scanning calorimetry (dsc) study showed that the melting temperature (tm) of gnps/pcl/pvc nanocomposites was slightly higher than neat pcl/pvc. the thermogravimetric analyzers (tga) thermograms presented that the thermal stability of gnps/pcl/pvc were about 20-30°c higher than pcl/pvc blend. it was also found that the size of spherulites of both pcl/pvc and gnps/pcl/pvc were smaller than gnps/pcl/pvc. © 2017,chemical society of pakistan. all rights reserved.