In-situ preparation and characterization of highly oriented graphene oxide/cellulose-poly(butylene succinate) ternary composite films

Graphene oxide/cellulose-poly(butylene succinate) (GO/CE-PBS) films with excellent mechanical properties were prepared via the help of ionic liquid. During the process of preparation of the composite films, PBS as the toughening material was added to the composite with the dissolution of CE. The X-ray diffraction results showed that GO was completely exfoliated in the CE-PBS matrix. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy verified that new hydrogen bonds were formed between CE chains and GO sheets because of the hydrophilic groups on the GO sheets. Morphological analysis of composite films showed that PBS existed in the CE matrix in the form of microparticles, leading to a rough fractured surface. Tensile tests indicated that the elongation at break of CE was significantly improved with a low PBS content. The tensile strength and Young’s modulus of GO/CE-PBS ternary composite films with only 1 wt% GO were increased by 188 and 320 % compared to the pure CE films, respectively; meanwhile, the elongation at break of the composite films was 9.3, which was also higher than that of pure CE films. SEM and Halpin-Tsai model analysis showed that GO sheets were likely to be arranged parallel to the film because of the large lateral thickness ratio, which may determine the orientation of CE chains and result in significant improvement of the mechanical properties of CE films.