A comparison study on mechanical properties of PVC composites filled by graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO)

Graphene derivatives (graphene oxide-GO, reduced graphene oxide-RGO, multi-layer grapheme-MLG, etc.) generally are considered to be extremely significant fillers to improve properties of polymer materials. In this work, the mechanical properties of the composites according to filler type and filler loading were investigated. The composites were prepared using GO, RGO as the fillers and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as a matrix. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies on the composites showed that the GO and RGO layers well-dispersed in polymer matrix. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the composite with RGO exhibited smooth and clean surfaces, but the surface images of the composite with GO showed highly porous morphology because of the good filler-matrix interaction. The composites at a high GO loading (1% wt.) and a low RGO loading (0.1% wt.) indicated a prominent improvement in the mechanical properties. When compared the unfilled PVC, the tensile strength of the composite with 1 wt.% loading of the GO and 0.1 wt.% loading of the RGO increased by 84% and 42%, respectively. The composite with RGO showed a higher microhardness value compared to that of the composite with GO, but the elongation at break of the composite with RGO decreased because RGO loading increased the brittleness of composite structure