The effect of graphene oxide (GO) or reduced GO (rGO) on the structure and properties of polyelectrolyte-complexed chitosan/alginate bionanocomposites is highly dependent on plasticiser type (glycerol or 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([C2mim][OAc])) due to the competing interactions between the components. For the glycerol-plasticised chitosan/alginate matrix, inclusion of GO/rGO enhanced the chitosan crystallinity and increased matrix ductility. While the chitosan/alginate matrix plasticised by [C2mim][OAc] showed dramatically weakened interactions between the two biopolymers, GO was highly effective at counteracting the effect of [C2mim][OAc] by interacting with the biopolymers and the ionic liquid ions, resulting in enhanced mechanical properties and decreased surface hydrophilicity. Compared with GO, rGO was much less effective at promoting chitosan-alginate interactions and even resulted in higher surface hydrophilicity. However, irrespective of the plasticiser type, inclusion of rGO resulted in reduced crystallinity by restricting the interactions between [C2mim][OAc] and the biopolymers, and higher ionic conductivity.
Keywords: 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate; Chitosan nanocomposites; Glycerol; Graphene oxide; Polyelectrolyte complexation; Polysaccharide thermomechanical processing.
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