A simple approach to decorate multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)⁻reduced graphene oxide (RGO) hybrid nanoparticles with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods is developed to improve the electrical and mechanical properties of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)/MWCNT⁻RGO composites. The ZnO nanorods act as "joint" in three-dimensional (3D) MWCNT⁻RGO networks and the hybrid particles strongly interact with PVC chains via p-π stacking, hydrogen bonds, and electrostatic interactions, which we confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman analysis. By introducing the ZnO nanorods, the RGO⁻ZnO⁻MWCNT hybrid particles increased 160% in capacitance compared with MWCNT⁻RGO hybrids. Moreover, the addition of RGO⁻ZnO⁻MWCNT to PVC resulted in the mechanical properties of PVC being enhanced by 30.8% for tensile strength and 60.9% for Young's modulus at the loadings of 2.0 weight percent (wt.%) and 1.0 wt.%, respectively. Meanwhile, the electrical conductivity of PVC increased by 11 orders of magnitude, from 1 × 10-15 S/m to 1 × 10-4 S/m for MWCNT⁻ZnO⁻RGO loading at 5.0 wt.%.
Keywords: multi-walled carbon nanotubes-reduced graphene oxide hybrid nanoparticles; nanocomposites; poly(vinyl chloride); zinc oxide nanorods.