Synthesis and characterization of polyvinyl alcohol based multiwalled carbon nanotube nanocomposites

• “Grafting to” approach was carried out to synthesize PVA based CNT nanocomposites.
• Simple and mild conditions were used for oxidation of CNTs.
• No intermediate treatments were required for grafting the PVA to the oxidized CNTs.
• TGA results show high level of functionalization for CNTs.
• Obtained thermal durability of the PVA-grafted MWCNT nanocomposite is rather high.

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition over an Fe–Co/alumina catalyst. Nanotubes were then oxidized and grafted with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The obtained nanostructure was characterized by Raman spectroscopy, XRD, FTIR, EDX, SEM, TEM and TGA methods. FTIR confirmed the presence of the characteristic peaks of the anticipated ester group. The formation of polymer nanocomposites based on polyvinyl alcohol and multiwalled carbon nanotubes was confirmed by SEM and TEM. High resolution electron micrographs revealed that the primary binding sites for PVA grafting are the sidewall defects of the nanotubes. The novelty of this work is the use of the Fischer esterification reaction for creating the permanent link between the nanotubes and the PVA matrix.

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