Strong, transparent and flexible aramid nanofiber/POSS hybrid organic/inorganic nanocomposite membranes

Abstract Mechanical performance, transparency and thermal stability still remain the dominating constraints for the application of polymeric composite membranes. Thus, the research and development of co-effectively strong, transparent and heat-resistant membranes are necessary and significant for promoting practical outcomes. POSS NPs is incorporate into the structure of aramid nanofibers (ANFs) to synthesize the ANFPs nanocomposite membranes with different amounts of POSS by vacuum-assisted flocculation. FT-IR and XPS were applied to characterize the structure of composite membranes. Upon the addition of POSS, the surface topological structures of composite membranes were not affected, and they retained excellent transparency and flexibility. The mechanical properties of ANFPs membranes could be altered by changing the POSS content, in which the POSS served as a cross-linking agent between nanofibers, and ANFPs composite membrane presented the optimal tensile strength with 6 wt% POSS embedding in the nanocomposite. Besides the excellent mechanical performance and transparency, the unique thermal assets of ANFs and POSS further enabled the membranes with high thermal stability. Based on these results, it could be concluded that the ANFPs membranes developed here might provide the alternative materials for the practical application of strong, transparent and heat-resistant membrane.