Investigation on the effect of GMA-graft structure in SAN-g-GMA-coSt on inter-phase behavior, thermal stability, and mechanical properties of PC/SAN/GO nanocomposites

2020 
In this study, the effect of simultaneous presence of graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles and styrene-assisted glycidyl-methacrylate-grafted SAN copolymer (SAN-g-GMA-coSt), as a compatibilizer, on inter-phase behavior, microstructure, thermal, and mechanical properties of PC/SAN blends was investigated. First, the structure of GMA-grafts on the surface of the SAN copolymer was adjusted to improve the compatibility of the blend components. The role that processing conditions play in grafting efficiency was comprehensively studied by FTIR and H-NMR techniques. The results indicated that the optimized SAN-g-GMA-coSt contained grafted sequences consist of 5 GMA molecules dispersed in every 387 carbons of the straight SAN chains. This structure of GMA-grafts reduced phase separations of the blend components and the size of droplets. GO localization in the system, controlled by two-step mixing method, was studied theoretically and the prediction was confirmed by the experimental results. The DSC and DMTA thermograms illustrated that the inter-phase region expanded probably by interactions between functional groups on the surface of GO and the epoxy section of GMA. In addition, thermogravimetric and mechanical results indicated that incorporation of nanoparticles in the presence of SAN-g-GMA-coSt increased the residual mass (char yield) at 600 C and tensile strength of nanocomposites by 55% and 37%, respectively.
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