Improving mechanical and electrical properties of poly(vinyl alcohol-g-acrylic acid) nanocomposite films by reinforcement of thermally reduced graphene oxide

Graphene has drawn an astounding research interest in recent years, owing to its exceptional properties. The scaled-up and trustworthy production of graphene derivatives, such as graphene oxide (GO) and thermally reduced graphene oxide (TRGO), offer wide variety of possibilities to synthesize graphene-based polymer materials for various applications. In the present work, poly(vinyl alcohol-g-acrylic acid) films were prepared by grafting polyacrylic acid chains onto polyvinyl alcohol backbone employing a free radical polymerization system in the presence of crosslinking agent, N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA). The graphene was homogeneously dispersed into the prepared polymer using thermal mechanical agitation technique. The so prepared nanocomposites were undertaken for structural and morphological characterization using FTIR, SEM, XRD, Raman Spectroscopy, DLS, Zetasizer and AFM analysis, respectively. The electrical conductive and mechanical properties of prepared nanocomposite films were also investigated.