AUTHOR=Mousa Mohanad , Dong Yu TITLE=Elastic Behavior of Nanophases in Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA)/Bamboo Charcoal (BC) Nanocomposite Films JOURNAL=Frontiers in Materials VOLUME=5 YEAR=2018 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/materials/articles/10.3389/fmats.2018.00044 DOI=10.3389/fmats.2018.00044 ISSN=2296-8016 ABSTRACT=

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanocomposite films reinforced with bamboo charcoal (BC) nanoparticles were successfully fabricated via solution casting and their nanomechanical properties in terms of material phases were determined by a peak force quantitative nanomechanical tapping mode (PFQNM). Our experimental results revealed that the elastic modulus of PVA semicrystalline phase in stack-bundle form was 24 ± 4.2 GPa with the semicrystalline phase width being 20–76 nm, as opposed to 11.4 ± 3.1 GPa and 18–65 nm for corresponding PVA amorphous phase accordingly. The incorporation of BC nanoparticles enhanced the elastic moduli of both crystalline and amorphous phases of PVA by ~51% and ~100%, respectively. Moreover, the phase width was decreased to be in range of 5–53 nm for crystalline phase and 4–35 nm for amorphous phase.