Molecular Dynamics Modeling of Mechanical Properties of Polymer Nanocomposites Reinforced by C7N6 Nanosheet

Abstract

Carbon-nitride nanosheets have attracted remarkable attention in recent years due to their outstanding physical properties. C7N6 is one of the hotspot nanosheets which possesses excellent mechanical, electrical, and optical properties. In this study, the coupled thermo-mechanical properties of the single nanosheet C7N6 are systematically investigated. Although temperature effects have a strong influence on the mechanical properties of C7N6 monolayer, thermal effects were not fully analyzed for carbon-nitride nanosheet and still an open topic. To this end, the presented contribution aims to highlight this important aspect and investigate the temperature influence on the mechanical stress-strain response. By using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, we have found out that the C7N6 monolayer’s maximum strength decreases as the temperature increase from 300 K to 1100 K. In the current contribution, 5% to 15% volume fractions of C7N6/P3HT composite were employed to investigate the C7N6 reinforcing ability. Significantly, the uniaxial tensile of C7N6/P3HT composite reveals that 10%C7N6 can enhance the maximum strength of the composite to 121.80 MPa which is 23.51% higher than the pure P3HT matrix. Moreover, to better understand the enhanced mechanism, we proposed a cohesive model to investigate the interface strength between the C7N6 nanosheet and P3HT matrix. This systematic study provides not only a sufficient method to understand the C7N6 thermo-mechanical properties, but also the reinforce mechanism of the C7N6 reinforced nanocomposite. Thus, this work provides a valuable method for the later investigation of the C7N6 nanosheet.