A novel method of modifying thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) by the introduction of multi-dimensional nanocomposites composed of graphene oxide nanoribbons (GONRs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs)

in which GONRs are two-dimensional and CNTs are one-dimensional

was applied.Different content ratios of GONRs-CNTs nanocomposites were prepared through oxidative longitudinal unzipping of MWCNTs

and the ratio of the two was controlled by changing the amount of potassium permanganate in the reaction system.And then the different nanoparticles were added into TPU matrix to yield GONRs-CNTs/TPU composite films.Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)

X-ray diffraction (XRD)

thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA)

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)

transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) were used to study the structure and properties of the different GONRs-CNTs hybrids.Meanwhile

by means of oxygen transmission rate test

tensile test and the observation of surface morphology

we studied the synergetic effect of GONRs and CNTs and the effect of their content ratio on the barrier and mechanical properties of TPU composite films.The results show that a new structure is successfully obtained

in which GONRs are bridged by CNTs

and the synergy between GONRs and CNTs has a better performance than pure MWCNTs.When the content ratio of GONRs to CNTs in the added filler is about 67:33

the barrier and mechanical properties of GONRs-CNTs/TPU composite films approach the optimum value:the oxygen transmission rate is reduced by 51.3% and the tensile strength increased by 29.3% compared with those of the pure TPU

respectively.It suggests that the addition of GONRs/CNTs nanocomposites is beneficial to improve the barrier and mechanical properties of TPU.