Enhancing the Strength of Acrylonitrile–Butadiene–Styrene with Gas-Phase-Synthesized Graphene for Injection-Molding Applications

Abstract

Increasing the strength-to-weight ratio of injection moldable polymers can benefit a broad range of applications, such as automobiles, aircraft, and consumer electronic devices. This paper demonstrates that incorporating miniscule quantities (0.1 wt %) of gas-phase-synthesized graphene into acrylonitrile−butadiene−styrene (ABS) can significantly increase the strength of injection-molded specimens by over 20%. The results transform our current understanding of the structure−property relationships of graphene-filled polymermatrix nanocomposites because highly crumpled graphene sheets with nonfunctionalized surfaces and nanometer-scale lateral dimensions are shown to be more effective at strengthening ABS than flat graphene flakes with functionalized surfaces and micrometer-scale lateral dimensions.