High strength composite fibres from polyester filled with nanotubes and graphene

Abstract

We have prepared composite fibres based on the polyester, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), filled with both single walled nanotubes and graphene by a combination of solution and melt processing. On addition of #2 wt% filler we observe increases in both modulus and strength by factors of between Â2 and Â4 for both fillers. For the nanotube-based fibres, the mechanical properties depend strongly on fibre diameter due to a combination of defect and nanotube orientation effects. For the graphene filled fibres, the modulus is approximately invariant with diameter while the strength is defect limited, scaling weakly with diameter. Using this production method, the best fibre we prepared had modulus and strength of 42 GPa and 1.2 GPa respectively (2 wt% SWNT). We attribute this reinforcement predominately to the dispersion quality resulting from the solvent exfoliation of both nanotubes and graphene. In general, marginally better reinforcement was observed for the nanotube filled fibres. However, because of the low cost of graphite, we suggest graphene to be the superior reinforcement material for polymer fibres.

High stiffness nano-composite fibres from polyvinylalcohol filled with graphene and boron nitride

“…[10,14,72,77,78] However, in this work we found that asproduced nanosheets could not be used to prepare composite fibres. We discovered that this could be addressed by using special techniques (see methods) to produce extremely high concentration (~30 mg/mL) dispersions of both graphene and BN nanosheets.…”

“…Shown in Figure 2A-F are SEM images of the resultant fibres which are generally straight, with an even surface, uniform diameter, and circular cross section. This is in contrast to graphene-only fibres [61,62,65,72,80,81], which are usually much less uniform. Close up images of fracture surfaces of both graphene-and BN-filled composite fibres are shown in…”

“…However, only one study has yet described fibres filled with pristine graphene. [72] In fact, we believe pristine nanosheets, not only of graphene but also of other inorganic 2D materials such as boron nitride (BN) may have some advantages as reinforcing fillers in composite fibres. BN, in particular has mechanical properties very similar to graphene.…”

Improved Adhesive Strength and Toughness of Polyvinyl Acetate Glue on Addition of Small Quantities of Graphene

“…24 Originally produced in very small quantities, 25 graphene can now be produced in large quantities by exfoliation 26 of graphite in solvents, 27 aqueous surfactant solutions 28 or polymer solutions. 29,30 Already, graphene has displayed significant success in reinforcing 31-34 both thermoplastics [35][36][37] and elastomers, 38,39 in some cases at very low loading level. 36,40,41 With this in mind, graphene appears to be a promising additive for thermoplastic adhesives.…”

Reinforcement in melt-processed polymer–graphene composites at extremely low graphene loading level

“…The polymer matrix used in this study was polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a choice which was made for a number of reasons. Firstly, previous work has shown that graphene can be used to effectively reinforce PET [15]. In addition, PET is widely used in applications where mechanical properties are relevant and so reinforcement of PET could prove highly useful.…”