Fabrication of graphene oxide-reinforced polyvinyl alcohol and study effect of thermal annealing of GO/PVA nanocomposites on their properties

In the presented work, graphene oxide (GO) was obtained as a plate using the Hummer technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) show the formation of pristine GO. Composite materials were prepared by adding different percentages of GO to polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) (2%GO/PVA, 3% GO/PVA, and 20% GO/PVA). To determine the effect of thermal annealing on the structure, physical properties, and morphology of the samples, thermal annealing of the samples was performed for 1 hour at temperatures (40°C, 70°C, and 110°C). Following that, to explore how the characteristics of GO/PVA composites vary with concentration and thermal annealing temperature, the structural, optical, and morphological features of the samples were determined using XRD, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), and Raman spectroscopy, as well as SEM used to investigate the properties of all samples. From the XRD results, by the increasing thermal annealing temperature, the space between the sheets is decreased. From Raman measurements, the ID/IG ratio for 2% and 3% GO/PVA composite materials increased with increasing temperature compared to the pristine GO. It indicates that the defect in the structure increases due to the effect of temperature.