Fabrication of BaTiO3-Loaded Graphene Nanosheets-Based Polyarylene Ether Nitrile Nanocomposites with Enhanced Dielectric and Crystallization Properties

Abstract

In this paper, barium titanate@zinc phthalocyanine (BT@ZnPc) and graphene oxide (GO) hybrids (BT@ZnPc-GO) connected by calcium ions are prepared by electrostatic adsorption, and then introduced into polyarylene ether nitrile (PEN) to obtain composites with enhanced dielectric and crystallization properties. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results confirm the successful fabrication of the BT@ZnPc-GO. BT@ZnPc-GO and PEN composites (BT@ZnPc-GO/PENs) are obtained through the solution-casting method. BT@ZnPc-GO demonstrates well compatibility with PEN due to its unique structure and the organic layer of ZnPc at the periphery of BT. On the other hand, BT and GO contribute a high dielectric constant of the composites obtained. In addition, the BT@ZnPc-GO can be used as a nucleating agent to promote the crystallization of the nanocomposites. As a result, The BT@ZnPc-GO/PEN exhibits a dielectric constant of 6.4 at 1 kHz and crystallinity of 21.03% after being isothermally treated at 280 °C for 2 h at the GO content of 0.75 wt %. All these results indicate that the hybrid nanofiller BT@ZnPc-GO can be an effective additive for preparing high-performance PEN-based nanocomposites.