Enhancing thermal stability of polycarbonate films with one‐sided coating of graphene oxide

Abstract

AbstractIn this study, polycarbonate (PC) films were coated with a thin layer of graphene oxide (GO) or its reduced form (rGO) via vacuum filtration. The effects of the coating on PC were studied by means of modulated differential scanning calorimetry (mDSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscopy. As shown by mDSC, there was no significant change in glass transition temperature (Tg), indicating little molecular interaction between the PC and the coating. In addition, GO and rGO showed poorer thermal stability than the neat PC, which is consistent with the literature. Despite these findings, both GO‐ and rGO‐coated PC films exhibited significantly higher onset thermal degradation temperatures than the neat PC. Moreover, when the rGO loading was below a certain level, the coated PC films demonstrated a comprehensive enhancement in thermal stability over the entire temperature range of TGA measurement. Such enhancement could be observed even at very low rGO loadings when the surface of the PC film was partially coated.