Preparation of Polyvinyl Chloride-Polyaniline-single walled Carbon Nanotube nanocomposite with improved mechanical properties by response surface method

In this study, to improve the mechanical properties of polyaniline (PANI) its nanocomposite was prepared using polyaniline and carbon nanotube (CNT) as reinforcing agent. PVC- PANI - CNT nanocomposite was synthesized by mixing CNT with a solution of PVC containing dispersed PANI. Solution casting method was used to prepare PVC- PANI - CNT nanocomposite films. The effect of three factors including carbon nanotube weight percent, drying temperature of the nanocomposite film, sonication time of nanocomposite solution at different levels using the box-Behnken design (response surface method). According to this method, 15 tests were performed. The values for tensile strength of nanocomposite films were used as response to analysis of variance for data analysis. The linearity of the normal distribution curve for the remainder confirmed the correctness of the presented model. Two and three- dimensional Graphs of surface design method showed that tensile strength increases by increasing the weight percentage of carbon nanotubes to 0.66%. While more than it reduces the tensile strength. Also, by reducing the drying temperature of the film and increasing the sonication time, tensile strength increase. Some physicochemical properties of the nanocomposite films were investigated using FT-IR spectroscopy, SEM, TGA techniques.