Mechanical reinforcement of chitosan using unzipped multiwalled carbon nanotube oxides

In this paper, unzipped multiwalled carbon nanotube oxides (UMCNOs), obtained by oxidation unzipping multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were used as novel nanofillers for mechanical reinforcement of chitosan (CS) matrix. The UMCNOs/CS nanocomposite films with different amounts of UMCNOs were fabricated by solution-casting the mixtures of UMCNOs and CS acetic acid aqueous dispersions. The structures and mechanical properties of the nanocomposite films were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, SEM, and tensile tests. The results demonstrated that UMCNOs could be homogeneously dispersed throughout the chitosan matrix. Compared to neat chitosan, the UMCNOs/CS nanocomposite films showed ∼105.9% increase in tensile strength from 69.3 to 142.7 MPa, and ∼165.3% increase in Young’s modulus from 2.6 to 6.9 Gpa with the incorporation of only 0.2 wt% of UMCNOs into the chitosan matrix.