Morphology and Properties of Conducting Polyvinyl Alcohol Hydrosulfate/Graphite Nanosheet Composites

Polyvinyl alcohol hydrosulfate (PVA-S) was obtained by esterification reaction of polyvinyl alcohol using sulfuric acid. Nanoscale graphite (NanoG) resulting from exfoliation of expandable graphite and subsequent sonication irradiation of resulting expanded graphite shows nanoscale structure with a thickness of 40—70 nm, which also exhibits higher aspect ratios. The PVA-S/NanoG nanocomposite was fabricated by solution compounding. SEM and optical micrographs were applied to confirm the formation of the PVA-S/NanoG nanocomposite. The tensile strength, elastic modulus, and yield strength of the PVA-S/NanoG nanocomposite were measured and found to decrease with the increasing NanoG loading. The electrical conductivity rises with the increase in temperature, indicating that the temperatures are important parameters of governing the electrical conductivity. The obtained PVA-S/NanoG nanocomposite showed low percolation threshold value of about 0.2 wt%, and maximum of electrical conductivity of 5.4 × 10-5 S cm-1.