Polymer Composites Based on Polylactide-Containing Various Kinds of Carbon Nanofillers

Abstract

Filled nanocomposites of polylactide with graphite nanoplates (GNPs) and reduced grapheneoxide (RGO) are prepared by liquid-phase synthesis. A comparative study of the mechanical, electric, andthermophysical characteristics of the compositions depending on the nature of the nanofillers is carried out.An insignificant difference in the mechanical parameters of the compositions containing GNPs and RGO asfillers is established. At the same time, when studying the electrical properties, it is found that the use of RGOas a filler leads to the production of composites with a lower percolation threshold of the flow than in the caseof GNPs and increased conductivity. The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) method shows that compositionscontaining GNPs as a filler have a higher degree of crystallinity in comparison with similar compositionscontaining RGO. This is caused by the structure of the filled compositions, which influences thenucleation rate of polylactide (PLA) crystallites on the surface of ordered planar nanoparticles of the GNPsand imperfect RGO particles. Thus, the use of different carbon nanofillers may promote the production ofcompositions that differ in their characteristics.