The Study of Mechanical, Thermal, and Antibacterial Properties of PLA/Graphene Oxide/TiO2 Hybrid Nanocomposites

This study attempts to improve the anti-bacterial, thermal and mechanical properties of Poly-Lactic Acid (PLA)/Graphene Oxide (GO) by incorporating the titanium oxide (TiO2) nanoparticles. For this purpose, the TiO2 nanoparticles were introduced into PLA/GO films in the content of 1, 3, and 5 wt%. The film samples were prepared by the solution casting method. The mechanical properties were evaluated by a tensile test to report the tensile strength, elongation, and elastic modulus. The thermal properties were investigated by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) tests, and the agar disk diffusion method was carried out to investigate the antibacterial properties of the film samples. The Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) images showed the homogenous dispersion of the nanoparticles in the PLA matrix. TGA results showed that incorporating GO and TiO2 nanoparticles improves the thermal stability of the PLA matrix considerably.