Abstract
The essence core of this study is to investigate the effect of functionalization of graphene platelets (GNPs) and its low loadings of 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, and 1.00 wt% on the chemical, mechanical, and electrical properties of polylactic acid/liquid natural rubber (PLA/LNR) blend prepared by melt blending method. GNPs are treated with amino dodecanoic acid via covalent interaction and Triton X-100 (TX100) via non-covalent interaction to produce ADA-functionalized GNPs (GNP-A) and TX100-functionalized GNPs (GNP-T), respectively. At 0.75 wt% GNPs, the PLA/LNR nanocomposites exhibit the highest tensile strength of 24.38, 35.70, 45.47 MPa for untreated GNPs (GNP-u), GNP-T, and GNP-A, respectively. Variable pressure scanning electron microscopy proves better interaction of treated-GNPs with the matrix, while transmission electron microscopy micrographs have shown that PLA/LNR/GNP-A has the best filler dispersion with minimal stacking and agglomeration found. A remarkable improvement of electrical properties is observed for treated-GNPs nanocomposite with lower percolation threshold value of 0.3 wt% as compared to that of GNP-u nanocomposite (0.4 wt%).