Preparation and mechanical properties of well-aligned and well-oriented poly(vinyl alcohol) nanoribbon

We report a novel, economical method of preparing well-aligned and well-oriented nanoribbons made of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). The method requires no special equipment and easily produces nanoribbon. The structure of uniaxially drawn nanoribbon was investigated by polarized microscopy, polarized FT-IR, and X-ray diffraction, which showed high molecular and crystallite orientations. The well-aligned PVA nanoribbon, measuring several tens of micrometer width and around 400 nm thickness, had a Young's modulus of 9 GPa and a tensile strength of 350 MPa. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.