Mechanical and morphological studies of new terpolymer composite

The present research article reports the mechanical and morphological properties of a new nano composite material derived from aniline - ortho toludine - diethylaniline terpolymer (AOTDEA) and graphene oxide (GO). The composite under present investigation has shown significant improvement in its mechanical properties and morphological characters as compared to terpolymer alone. AOTDEA terpolymer was obtained by condensation polymerisation of the starting materials and its structure has been assigned by physicochemical and spectral evidences. GO was prepared from graphite using a modified Hummers method. GO was used as a nano-filler for the fabrication of AOTDEA-GO composite. It is evident that addition of 5% by weight of GO led to significant enhancement in tensile strength of the composite. It is supported by the drastic decrease in the Young’s modulus values of terpolymer and its composite with GO that is 3.9 GPa and 2.3 GPa respectively. It is further supported by increased elongation at break values. The decrease in volume resistivity values suggests that incorporation of GO during composite fabrication served as a conducting filler material to form elec-trical percolation networks in the composites. The improved morphological properties are supported by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images.