Effect of molybdenum disulfide functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes based hybrid on morphology, mechanical and thermal properties of epoxy nanocomposites

Three‐dimensional molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) functionalized MWCNTs hybrid nanoparticles were synthesized using in‐situ hydrothermal reaction. Two types of hybrids, MoS2/MWCNTs‐1 and MoS2/MWCNTs‐2 with MWCNTs to MoS2 precursor weight ratios 1:2 and 1:1 respectively were prepared with varying degrees of hybridization and the effects of their incorporation on tensile strength and fracture toughness properties of epoxies were investigated. Epoxy/MoS2/MWCNTs‐2 nanocomposites showed exceptional mechanical properties due to their improved dispersion, constrained chain mobility and excellent interfacial interactions. MoS2/MWCNTs‐2 nanocomposites showed maximum improvement of tensile strength by 28.52% at 0.5 wt% nanofiller concentration and the highest improvements in fracture toughness by 172% at 0.2 wt% nanofiller concentration. The excellent enhancement of fracture toughness properties was due to the synergic effect of MoS2/MWCNTs hybrid nanoparticles due to the crack pinning and bifurcation properties of MoS2 nanoparticles along with the pull‐out and crack bridging mechanisms of MWCNTs as observed in morphological analysis of fractures nanocomposites. The incorporation of 0.2 wt% of MoS2/MWCNTs‐2 increased the degradation temperatures of epoxy from 591 to 796°C at 95% weight loss due to the improved physical barrier effect. Highlights MoS2/MWCNTs nanoparticles were synthesized using in‐situ hydrothermal reaction 0.5 wt% MoS2/MWCNTs‐2 incorporated epoxies showed highest tensile strength 0.2 wt% MoS2/MWCNTs‐2 incorporated epoxy composites show improved K1c value Incorporation of MoS2/MWCNTs improved the thermal stability of epoxy Synergistic effect of nanocomposite due to crack pinning, bifurcation & bridging Concurrent improvement of epoxies' tensile and fracture toughness brought about by the incorporation of proposed MoS2/MWCNT‐2 hybrid nanoparticles.