Superior Crystallization Kinetics Caused by the Remarkable Nucleation Effect of Graphene Oxide in Novel Ternary Biodegradable Polymer Composites

Abstract

In this study, novel ternary composites were prepared, including biodegradable poly(ethylene succinate) (PESu), poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), and graphene oxide (GO). We have conducted a comprehensive study on whether GO can successfully promote the crystallization behaviors of PESu in the ternary composites. The results of isothermal crystallization demonstrated that with the increase of GO content in the composite (at a fixed PESu/PEG ratio), the Avrami rate constant k gradually increased, indicating that the crystallization rate was faster when GO was added to the composite. The same phenomenon was also found for nonisothermal crystallization. It was found that the Mo model can adequately describe the nonisothermal crystallization behaviors of the composites. The analyses demonstrated that the F(T) value estimated from the Mo model decreased when the GO content was increased. This result implied that GO promoted the nonisothermal crystallization of PESu in the ternary PESu/PEG/GO composites. Discussions on nucleation activity and microscopy observations confirmed that GO can act as a nucleation agent to further enhance the crystallization of the composites. The significant nucleation effect of GO on PESu in its novel ternary composite was first discovered in this study.