Rheology and non-isothermal crystallization behaviors of poly(butylene succinate)/graphene oxide composites

The poly(butylene succinate) (PBS)/graphene oxide (GO) composites containing different GO contents were prepared. The dispersion of GO was investigated using optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The results showed that GO exhibited good dispersion in the polar PBS matrix. The rheological measurements showed that the presence of GO induced largely increased melt viscosity for the composites. Specifically, high content of GO formed the percolated network structure. The non-isothermal crystallization kinetics was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry. The results showed that the non-isothermal crystallization behavior of PBS was influenced by GO content and cooling rate. At relatively small content, GO dramatically accelerated the crystallization of PBS. More integrated PBS crystalline structure was achieved by introducing GO. The nucleation effect of GO in the composites was proved further by the variation of isothermal crystallization morphologies.