Graphene oxide does not seem to improve the fracture properties of injection molded PA6

Abstract Scientific literature presents a number of examples in which the mechanical properties of materials are significantly improved by adding small amounts of nano-particles. In many cases, the addition of such nano-particles is performed on polymer-matrix composites, with reported improvements in mechanical, optical, thermal or electrical properties. Therefore, the potential of this technology is huge and a great deal of research work is being performed with the aim of generating new advanced engineering materials. However, this paper presents the other side of the coin. The authors have introduced small amounts of Graphene Oxide (up to 1%) in PA6 with the aim of studying their effect on the fracture properties of the resulting composites. For the particular conditions analyzed here, no improvements in the fracture behavior (in both cracked and notched conditions) have been observed (a similar conclusion may be obtained for the tensile behavior). Other types of material properties were not covered in the analysis. Sharing this kind of (negative) results may save other researchers time and budget, and it is a much more common practice in other fields of science.