title: Largely improved tensile properties of chitosan film via unique synergistic reinforcing effect of carbon nanotube and clay.
abstract: In this work, a great synergistic effect of 2D clay platelets and 1D carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on reinforcing chitosan matrix has been observed for the first time. With incorporation of 3 wt % clay and 0.4 wt % CNTs, the tensile strength and Young's modulus of the nanocomposites are significantly improved by about 171 and 124%, respectively, compared with neat chitosan. This could be understood as due to the formation of much jammed fillers network with 1D CNTs and 2D clay platelets combined together, as indicated by rheological measurement. Our work demonstrates a good example for the preparation of high performance polymer nanocomposites by using nanofillers of different dimension together.
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Science and Materials, Sichuan University, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Chengdu 610065, China.
authors.forename: Changyu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Lixue
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Juanxia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Changyue
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fu
mesh_terms: D000538:Aluminum Silicates / Q000737:chemistry*; D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry*; D000077215:Clay; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / Q000379:methods; D013718:Tensile Strength; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D000538:Aluminum Silicates; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D048271:Chitosan; D000077215:Clay