Supporting Information:
Crystallization Behavior of Spray-dried and Freeze-dried Graphene
Oxide/Poly(trimethylene terephthalate) Composites
Chengxin Guo, Liangliang Ji, Yaowen Li, Xiaoming Yang*, Yingfeng Tu*
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, College of
Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123,
P. R. China.
*: Corresponding-Author
Tel: +86 512 65882130; Fax: +86 512 65882130; E-mail: tuyingfeng@suda.edu.cn or
yangxiaoming@suda.edu.cn
Figure. S1. (a) FTIR spectra of neat PTT, SGO, graphite and PTT/SGO-5 and (b) the chemical
structure of PTT and GO and possible hydrogen bonding mechanism between their
functional groups.
Table S1. The Compositions of the FGO and SGO After Thermal Treatment.
Sample Name
O/ wt %
N/ wt %
C/ wt %
H/ wt %
Thermal
Treatment
FGO
FGO
FGO
FGO
FGO
FGO
SGO
54.84
54.65
52.88
52.67
48.20
40.80
41.77
1.07
1.12
1.07
1.05
1.24
1.42
0.13
41.85
41.97
43.67
43.91
48.50
56.61
57.10
2.23
2.26
2.37
2.36
2.09
1.15
1.00
rt 3h
40oC 3h
90 oC 3h
140 oC 3h
190 oC 3h
240 oC 3h
* 240 oC 3h
*: SGO were prepared using a spray-dried machine under the air inlet temperature of 180
oC.
Figure. S2. SEM images of (a) PTT/FGO-0.1, (b) PTT/FGO-1, (c) PTT/FGO-5, (a’) PTT/SGO-0.1, (b’)
PTT/SGO-1 and (c’) PTT/SGO-5.
Figure. S3. TEM images of the composites ultrathin sections: a) PTT/SGO-0.1, scale bar is 100 nm, b)
PTT/SGO-1, scale bar is 100 nm, c) PTT/SGO-5, scale bar is 1 μm.
Figure. S4. Light microscopy images of (a) PTT/FGO-0.1, (b) PTT/FGO-1, (c) PTT/FGO-5, (a’)
PTT/SGO-0.1, (b’) PTT/SGO-1 and (c’) PTT/SGO-5. (note: The exfoliated GO sheets we used have the size
of several micron with thickness of about 1 nanometer. For light microscopy pictures, the thickness of the
sample is about 20 micron. This means there can be thousands layers of GO sheets in the sample, which
can cause the appearance of large aggregation when they are at the same position with different depth,
when observed by the POM (like the leaves in a tree can block the transition of light and looks like large
aggregates). To ignore the thickness influence of the observation results, the samples with same thickness
were prepared and observed by light microscopy, and the results are presented here. The black spots were
agglomerate of GO. Fig. S4c shows that in case of FGO a significant portion still remains in the form of
large aggregates of various sizes. Distribution of SGO in the polymer matrix appears fairly uniform at a
low content less than 5.0 wt % (Fig. S4a’-c’), indicating the dispersion state of SGO is much better than
that of FGO.)
Figure. S5. WAXD profiles for pure PTT and its composites.
Figure. S6. TGA curves of PTT and PTT/SGO composites.
Figure. S7. Transmitted light intensity of PTT and the blend during isothermal crystallization
under 200 oC for PTT/SGO.