The Investigation of Morphological and Mechanical Properties of Polymer-Based Electrospun Nanofiber Coated Polystyrene and Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Composite Materials

In this study, polystyrene (PS) and recycled polyethylene terephthalate (R-PET) materials were coated by electrospun polyacrylonitrile/ polyvinyl alcohol (PAN/PVA) and PAN/ polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibers produced by electrospinning method to produce new polymer composite materials. Nanofibers were characterized by SEM, FT-IR and XRD confirmed the formation of PAN/PVA and PAN/PVDF electrospun nanofibers and their beadless and ordered morphology with an average diameter of 188.95 +/- 17.12 and 263.44 +/- 45.46 nm, respectively. The effect of nanofibrous coating on the tensile properties and hardness properties of the PS and R-PET composite materials obtained by plastic injection method was investigated. PS and R-PET samples were coated with PAN/PVA and PAN/PVDF nanofibers produced for 1h and 2h and these samples were compared for their mechanical properties. In terms of tensile properties, among the PS and RPET samples, the PAN/PVDF-coated R-PET composite showed the highest tensile strength value of 22.66 MPa and the highest elongation value of 8.49%. The results showed that after nanofibrous coating on PS and R-PET elastic modulus, tensile strength, and elongation at break properties of all samples enhanced. The analysis of hardness revealed an enhancement after nanofibrous coating for R-PET samples while relatively low changes in hardness values were determined for PS composites because of the rigid nature of PS.