Abstract:
The purpose of this research is to study the properties of poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) filled with graphene oxide. The graphene oxide/ poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) composites at various compositions were successfully prepared by the solution coagulation following by melt mixing. Graphene oxide (GO), which was obtained by the modified Hummers method, was characterized by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to confirm the presence of oxygen-containing functional groups. Masterbatch of PBAT with graphene oxide were prepared by the co-precipitation technique. Thereafter, the coagulates formed by the graphene oxide/PBAT was mixed with PBAT matrix to obtained different compositions of graphene oxide/PBAT compounds between 0 to 2.0 wt% of the filler by a twin-screw extruder. The composite films were processed by a chill roll cast extruder and investigated for their mechanical and thermal properties. The results showed that the tensile strength, Youngs modulus and tear strength are slightly higher with the increasing GO concentration. The scanning electron microscope micrographs showed the morphology of the cross section of film composites changed significantly after GO addition. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to study the thermal stability of composite films. The results indicated that there is almost no change in thermal behavior with the increasing GO loading. This behavior suggested that the addition of GO did not alter the thermal stability of PBAT. In addition, the increasing graphene oxide loadings slightly affected oxygen barrier properties of the composite films.