Effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles on the physical properties of polyacrylonitrile

Abstract

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocomposites were prepared by solution mixing in dimethylacetamide, followed by film casting, and their physical properties were investigated. The heating scan of differential scanning calorimetry displayed only a single crystallization peak (T c ) without a melting peak, regardless of the presence of ZnO. The incorporation of ZnO nanoparticles decreased T c by 13°C, and increased the heat of crystallization by 18%. Further, it greatly improved the thermal stability of PAN, even at the ZnO content as low as 0.1 wt %. The nanocomposites showed the UV transmittance peak at 365 nm, whose intensity was increased as ZnO content was increased. The presence of ZnO did not produce new peak nor shift the peaks with respect to PAN in wide angle X-ray diffraction pattern. Introduction of a small amount of ZnO nanoparticles did not have notable effect on the tensile properties. However, 5 wt % loading of the nanoparticles increased the tensile modulus of PAN by 14.5% and decreased elongation at break dramatically. PAN nanocomposites with 5 wt % ZnO did not show any plateau region in stress-strain curve.

Nano‐Level Mixing of ZnO into Poly(methyl methacrylate)

“…No pre-functionalization of the nanoparticles or grafting of the initiator is required. A comparison of the presented findings with those reported in the literature [20] on solution mixing of filler particles would reveal that the aggregate size of filler particles in the polymer matrix is significantly smaller (below 10 nm), indicating nano-level mixing.…”

Simultaneous Chemical and Optical Patterning of Polyacrylonitrile Film by Vapor-Based Reaction

“…Through the systematic investigation above, it was noticed that PAN‐based materials are a really attractive platform for further applications because PAN can be prepared into diverse shapes such as nanoparticles, nano/microfibers, nanotubes, and thin films . Scheme shows the fabrication process for EDA‐treated PAN film and selective FITC treatment via local PDMS patterning.…”

“…In order to achieve chemical modification of a polymeric substrate, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is a strong candidate to use because firstly one can prepare diverse shapes of PAN building blocks and secondly because the cyano group can be easily modified by amine treatment in the vapor phase. The nano/micro morphologies of PAN can be easily tuned into polymer films, nanoparticles, nano/microfibers, and nanotubes by using solution casting, emulsion polymerization, electrospinning, and vapor deposition polymerization, respectively. In addition, the most important feature of PAN materials is that the cyano group on the PAN backbone can be easily modified by simple vapor phase treatments as described in previous work .…”

Effects of flower-like ZnO nanowhiskers on the mechanical, thermal and antibacterial properties of waterborne polyurethane

“…Among the 1D ZnO nanostructures, nanorods have been widely studied because of their easy preparation and wide applications [8]. In previous studies, ZnO nanostructures were combined with PMMA [13,14], polystyrene [15], polyamide [16], polyacrylonitrile [17], polyacrylate [18], etc. Compared with the original polymers, the yielded composite materials present a lot of excellent performance.…”