Study of structural morphology, thermal degradation and surface charge decay in PU + PSF + CNTs polymer hybrid nanocomposite

• Hybrid nanocomposite is thermally stable.
• CNT enhances the crystallinity of PU-PSF matrix.
• The localization of charge carriers in different trapping levels.

Polyurethane (PU)/Polysulfone (PSF)/Multi Wall Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) hybrid nanocomposite films were prepared by solution grown method with different wt% of functionalized CNTs. The structural and thermal properties of PU, PSF and PU + PSF + CNTs nanocomposite films were studied by various techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), FTIR and TGA/DTG. The dispersion of CNTs in polymer was studied by SEM spectra, which indicates the presence of CNTs on the surface of the polymeric material. XRD results show the increases of crystallinity with different weight percentage of CNTs in polymer matrix. FTIR spectra reveal the position of different chemical bonds in pure and hybrid nanocomposite films. TGA and DTG show that the thermal stability of hybrid nanocomposite is better than PU and PSF due to reinforcement of CNTs in PU–PSF matrix. Surface charge decay study represents the charge stability in hybrid nanocomposite is due the localization of charge carriers in deeper traps.