Morphology, thermal, mechanical properties and ageing of nylon 6,6/graphene nanofibers as Nano2 materials

Nylon 6,6 nanofibers loaded with different Graphene (G) amounts were successfully produced with stable process and good fiber quality, using an optimized solvent system suitable both for electrospinning and for G-suspension. G addition is found to significantly affect diameter but not thermal behaviour. A new phenomenological model is proposed for the interpretation of mechanical behaviour of nanofibrous mat, trying to take into account the nanofibrous morphology. The model highlights a G contribution to mechanical properties that mainly affects the initial steps of deformation where fibers stretch, slide, twist and re-orient. Finally, the nanofibers were analysed after 20 months ageing, showing no significant alteration with respect to the pristine ones, thus the lack of detrimental ageing-effects due to G addition.