Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Thermoset–Graphene Nanocomposites

Abstract

formaldehyde, phenol formaldehyde, silicone, vinyl ester, cyanate ester, unsaturated polyester resin, etc. The properties of thermoset materials can be further improved by reinforcing them with fi llers, most commonly used being clays, carbon nanotubes, and graphene nanoplatelets. GrapheneGraphene is a fundamental building block of all graphitic forms of carbon and consists of a single layer of sp 2 -hybridized carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb structure. A single defect-free graphene layer has Young's modulus of 1.0 TPa, intrinsic strength 42 N m −1 , thermal conductivity 4840-5300 W (m K) −1 , electron mobility exceeding 25 000 cm 2 V −1 s −1 , excellent gas impermeability and specifi c surface area of 2630 m 2 g −1 . [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] On incorporation into polymers, the mechanical, thermal, as well as electrical properties of the polymeric materials are significantly improved. [ 3,[12][13][14][15] The geometry differs with size and number of atomic layers, which determines the aspect ratio and the specifi c surface area. Generally speaking, GNSs have higher specifi c surface area than CNTs, thus, having higher potential of property enhancement in Graphene has resulted in signifi cant research effort to generate polymer nanocomposites with improved mechanical, thermal as electrical properties as compared to pure polymers. A large number of studies have been undertaken using different graphene derivatives, fi ller loadings, synthesis methods, and so on to obtain optimum fi ller dispersion as well as fi ller-matrix interactions, which are crucial for achieving signifi cant enhancement in the properties, especially at low fi ller fraction. This review summarizes the mechanical and thermal properties of numerous studies carried out for the property enhancements of commercially relevant thermosetting materials such as epoxy, polyurethane, natural rubber, melamine formaldehyde, phenol formaldehyde, silicones, vinyl ester, cyanate ester, and unsaturated polyester resin.

Conductive Tough Hydrogel for Bioapplications

“…Previous work has shown that growth in hard segment content gives rise to an increase in tensile modulus, ultimate strength and yield strength, and a decrease in elongation at break . After adding each of the components to the PU, an increase in tensile strength was observed (Table ) that agrees with other published results …”

“…[25,26] After adding each of the components to the PU, an increase in tensile strength was observed (Table 1) that agrees with other published results. [26][27][28]…”

Mechanical characterization of graphene oxide reinforced epoxy at different strain rates

“…Graphene is a single layer of graphite that has honeycomb lattice . Graphene has interesting properties such as high specific surface area (2,600 m 2 g −1 ) , enhanced modulus (1 TPa) , thermal conductivity (5,000 W mK −1 ) , and so on, which make it attractive for many applications especially in reinforcing polymeric nanocomposites . Yao et al , reinforced epoxy by 0.4 and 0.8 wt% functionalized graphene oxide (GO).…”

Intercalation structure and toughening mechanism of graphene/urea‐formaldehyde nanocomposites prepared via in situ polymerization

“…[17][18][19] Unfortunately, GN sheets are prone to congregate in composites due to their strong -stacking between sheets and incompatible surface characteristics with the polymer matrices, hindering the application in nanocomposites. 13 Although many GN/polymer systems have been studied, [20][21][22] no literature is available for thermoset GN/UF nanocomposites.…”