Polymer functional group impact on the thermo-mechanical properties of polyacrylic acid, polyacrylic amide- poly (vinyl alcohol) nanocomposites reinforced by graphene oxide nanosheets

Graphene properties bring significant attention to enhancing the performance of attractive nanocomposites. This investigation focused on the impact of polymer functional groups. Two polymers with the same backbone chain and different end functional groups, poly (acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly (acrylic amide) (PAAm) reinforced with the graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets. The developed mixing-sonication-acoustic method was successfully fabricated PAA: poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA): GO and PAAm: PVA: GO nanocomposites films. Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) revealed the strongly interfacial interaction between polymers and GO nanosheet, supported by shifting in the polymer's X-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks and an increase in the crystallite size of the polymer. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) exhibited fine homogeneous and good nanomaterials dispersion in the polymers matrix. The sample showed better thermal stability, conductivity, and mechanical properties. The contribution of GO showed a remarkable change in the structure, morphology, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and slight enhancement of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results up to 25% and 20%, in contrast, thermal conductivity (TC) displayed notable enhancement up to 50% from 10.76 to 16.24 W/m C-o, and 225% from 3.54 to 11.24 W/m C-o, of PAA-PVA/GO and PAAm-PVA/GO nanocomposites, respectively. The mechanical properties such as ultrasound velocity, compressibility, and modulus of elasticity revealed notable enhancement after the contribution of GO up to 85%, 75% and 76%, 81%, and 233%, 148% of PAA-PVA/GO and PAAm-PVA/GO nanocomposites, respectively, compared to their blended polymers. Adsorbed radiation significantly enhanced 24% by acid group nanocomposites and showed promising sensors, thermostats, and other applications.