Facile green fabrication of well dispersed poly(vinylidene fluoride)/graphene oxide nanocomposites with improved properties

Poly(vinylidene fluoride)/graphene oxide (PVDF/GO) nanocomposites are fabricated for the first time by one-step water-assisted mixing extrusion (WAME) via injecting GO suspension into PVDF melt. Introduced GO layers increase the crystallinities especially the β-phase fractions of the PVDF due to the special interaction between carbonyl groups at the GO surface and fluorine groups in the PVDF. The GO layers are found to reinforce the PVDF matrix, as evidenced by the increased Young's moduli and tensile strengths. Predicted aspect ratio of the GO layers using the Halpin-Tsai equation is much larger than that in the PGOs samples, which may be attributed strong interaction between the PVDF chains and GO layers. TEM micrographs demonstrate that the GO layers are well exfoliated and dispersed in the PVDF matrix, the mechanism of which is analyzed from interactions among the PVDF chains, GO layers, and water molecules during the WAME. The WAME can be an excellent method for facile, continuous and mass fabrication of polymer/graphene nanocomposites.