Strong, Tough, and Transparent Poly(vinyl alcohol) Nanocomposites Enabled by Cross-Linkable Elastomeric Nanoparticles

Although poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) has attracted much attention owing to its high strength, good processability, and excellent transparency, the application of PVA materials is still limited due to their intrinsically poor toughness. Herein, a strategy is addressed to construct a PVA-based composite film that simultaneously achieves high strength, transparency, and excellent toughness. Herein, cross-linkable poly(butyl acrylate-<i>co</i>-methyl methacrylate-<i>co</i>-3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate) (PBMM) nanoparticle emulsion was synthesized via one-step emulsion polymerization. By directly blending and drying the PBMM emulsion and PVA aqueous solution, the PVA-based film was obtained. The incorporation of 8.33 wt % PBM₂₅₀M₁ could significantly improve the toughness of the PVA film by 11.26 times, achieving the highest value of 158.7 MJ/m³. Furthermore, the resulting composite film maintained a high strength of 94.8 ± 4.8 MPa (even higher than that of PVA). Such excellent properties were ascribed to the chemical reaction and strong interfacial adhesion between PVA and the PBMM latex nanoparticles. This work paves a feasible avenue of manufacturing PVA-based composites with both high mechanical and desirable optical performance, which is still challenging in current industrial technologies.