Enhanced physical properties of two dimensional MoS2/poly(vinyl alcohol) nanocomposites

Herein, we synthesized few-layered water dispersible two dimensional (2D) MoS2 nanosheets using thiourea by a facile hydrothermal method. The MoS2 nanosheets consisted of graphene-like structures that are 4 nm in thickness and ∼2 μM in size as observed from AFM analysis. The incorporation of MoS2 nanosheets into the poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) matrix significantly improved the thermal and dielectric properties of the fabricated nanocomposites (PVA-MoS2). The nanocomposite films demonstrated tremendous enhancements of the tensile strength (56%), modulus (42%), and toughness (more than 300%) after incorporation of 2 wt% of MoS2 nanosheets. The nanocomposite films also exhibited outstanding barrier towards hydrogen; specifically, the nanocomposite with 2 wt% of MoS2 nanosheets exhibited a decrease of almost 94% in its permeability than the PVA film for hydrogen gas. Different theoretical models have been applied to investigate the nature of dispersion of MoS2 inside the PVA matrix based on tensile modulus and permeability.