Investigation of optical properties, chemical network and electronic environments of polycaprolactone/reduced graphene oxide fiber nanocomposites

Reduced graphene oxide-reinforced polycaprolactone (PCL-rGO) nanofibers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy to analyze the morphology, chemical bonding, microstructure, elemental composition and optical properties, respectively. The XRD peaks at 24 degrees and 43 degrees correspond to (002) and (102) lattice planes respectively for rGO. The lattice strain of PCL-rGO nanocomposites varied from 0.00243 to 0.0043 respectively with increasing rGO from 1 to 15 wt%. The nu(C-H-n) shifts from 2939 to 2906 cm(-1) due to rGO reinforced with PCL network. TGA analysis reveals the remaining residual weight of PCL, PCL/rGO15 and rGO is 0.76, 7.5 and 93%, respectively, at 450 degrees C. The atomic percentage of C(1s) and O(1s) varied from 18.42 to 14.75 at.% and 81.57 to 85.24 at.%, respectively. There are the two distinct absorption bands at 264-270-nm and 505-565-nm regions for PCL-rGO composites and a single band at 256-nm region for rGO. Moreover, semiempirical Gaussian deconvolution was employed to predict various binding energies of core orbital spectra in PCL-rGO nanofibers. [GRAPHICS] .

Automated summary

The study characterized reduced graphene oxide-reinforced polycaprolactone (PCL-rGO) nanofibers using various analytical techniques to analyze their morphology, chemical structure, and optical properties. It was found that lattice strain, elemental composition, and other parameters of the nanocomposites varied with different rGO contents.