(651h) Investigating the Barrier Properties of a Polymeric Film Containing 2D Materials

The transport of a gas or liquid through a composite film is determined by the loading, aspect ratio, orientation and mixing of particles within such composites. The added particles could act as a barrier to transport of solutes through composite film. Such barrier properties of composites could be theoretically determined by considering uniform mixing of particles in composites, with given aspect ratio and loading. However for real systems, the complex behavior of particles in such composites may lead to significant deviation from ideal systems. Such complex behavior is dependent on the particle-particle and particle-polymer interaction. This study deals with the analysis of barrier properties of polymeric film containing 2D materials at low volume fraction (up to 5 wt.%) against transport of solute in liquid media. Apart from mixing, alignment of particles is another factor controlling the overall properties of such composites. This study aims to correlate the barrier properties of composite media with the loading, dispersion and orientation of particles embedded in composites. Several characterization techniques such as Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Microscopic analysis and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) are used to verify the dispersion and alignment of 2D particles within the composites media. Such composite films find application in food packaging, proton exchange membrane and surface coating applications.