Promising PLA-Functionalized MWCNT Composites to Use in Nanotechnology

PAULA GONZÁLEZ SELIGRA; MELISA LAMANNA ; LUCÍA FAMÁ

POLYMER COMPOSITES

JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2015

0272-8397

Films based on polylactic acid (PLA) reinforced withmulti-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) were developedafter using an excellent methodology to ensure anoptimum dispersion of the filler in the matrix. The functionalizationof MWCNT was carried out through a Fentonreaction to generate hydroxyl (OH) and carboxyl(COOH) groups on their walls. After that, COOH groupswere lengthened by reacting with thionyl chloride andthen with triethylene glycol to achieve a terminal OHdistanced from the wall of the MWCNT. Nanocompositesbased on PLA containing different concentrationsof functionalized filler (fMWCNT: 0.026, 0.10, and 0.18wt%) were prepared by casting. The influence of fillerconcentration was investigated using some techniquessuch as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fouriertransform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetricanalysis (TGA), water vapor permeability (WVP)and uniaxial tensile mechanical properties. Excellentdispersion of fMWCNT was observed suggesting thatthe technique of functionalization used was appropriate.All nanocomposites presented great stability, allowingthem to be processed to temperatures reaching 300C.Furthermore, an increasing trend of ultimate tensilestrength (ru) up to 20% and a decrease of WVP around40% with the addition of only 0.10 wt% of fMWCNTwere obtained. Considering these results, the new biodegradablenanocomposites developed in this workcould be very promising to replace synthetic plasticsthat currently are used in different areas such as nanotechnology,packaging and biomedicine.