Mechanical, Thermal, and Rheological Properties of Ti3C2Tx MXene/ Thermoplastic Polyurethane Nanocomposites

Abstract In this work, a novel nanocomposite is prepared via a melt blending of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene nanosheets pretreated with polyethylene glycol. It is found that the tensile strength and elongation at break increased by 41.2% and 15.4% at MXene loading values of 0.5 wt%. The addition of MXene slightly increases the crystalline speed of TPU, and effectively hinders the transfer of small gas molecules at high temperatures. The storage modulus, loss modulus, and complex viscosity of TPU nanocomposites increase with the increasing MXene content at low frequency. The results demonstrate that the mechanical, thermal, and rheological properties of TPU nanocomposites can be effectively improved by MXene nanomaterials.