Investigation on the Microstructure and Properties of PVC Toughened with DOP/PMMA/Nano-Graphene

Nanocomposites samples based on unplasticized polyvinyl chloride (UPVC) containing polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) as toughener, graphene nano-platelets (GNP) as reinforcement and di-octylphthalate as plasticizer were prepared with different composition ratios (i.e. 80/20 and 90/10 containing 0, 0.5, 1 and 2 phr GNP) using Haake internal mixer. Nanocomposite samples were analyzed using x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy to investigate the mutual interactions between GNP and PMMA. Mechanical properties (Tensile modulus, elongation at break and impact resistance) of the prepared nanocomposites including tensile modulus, elongation at break and impact strength were also measured. Results showed that increasing nanographene platelets content increases tensile modulus where impact strength, tensile strength and elongation at break are decreased. At constant graphene contents, nanocomposites containing 20% PMMA show higher impact strength and tensile modulus. This was attributed to the higher mixing efficiency due to the interactions established between PMMA and GNP observed through FTIR and also higher miscibility of UPVC/PMMA pair besides the PMMA characteristics. Fracture surface of nanocomposites are significantly rough at the presence of nano-graphene which shows the torturous crack growth path.