Self-assembled microstructures with localized graphene domains in an epoxy blend and their related properties

Taking a Tailored Approach to Material Design: A Mechanistic Study of the Selective Localization of Phase-Separated Graphene Microdomains

“…The combination of this multicomponent blend is a liquid processable commercial formulation, wherein amine-functionalized graphene nanoparticles (A-GNPs) are incorporated as reinforced particles. The A-GNPs are homogeneously dispersed in the epoxy matrix at the initial stage of curing, but the incorporation of 1-(2-aminoethyl)piperazine (AEPIP) into the chemical formulation leads to the self-assembly of a continuous phase-separated domain with graphene nanoplatelets, which was reported in ref ( 37 ). Figure 1 a highlights the reconstructions of the microstructures observed for A-BC (85:15) during the curing process, showing a sequence of images from initial to cured stages.…”

“…Thus, a further exploration and explanation, which is more applicable to TS blends, is worthy of investigation to reveal the underlying mechanism of selective localization of nanofillers in TS blends. We have previously demonstrated a simple and effective route to fabricate a microstructured dielectric nanocomposite film with high thermal conductivity and mechanical properties 37 and for the first time the possibility of using optical photothermal infrared (O-PTIR) spectroscopy to assist the investigation of the phase separation mechanism of an epoxy blend with selective localization of nanofillers. 38 Since it was not possible to determine the underlying phase separation mechanism directly through chemical mapping, a series of theoretical studies were performed to reveal the mechanism of phase morphology evolution during polymerization, which might enable the controlling of the phase structure with selective localization of nanofillers in TS systems.…”

AFM-IR investigation of thin PECVD SiOx films on a polypropylene substrate in the surface-sensitive mode

“…One of the first AFM-IR demonstrations was reported in 2005 by Dazzi et al [4], who presented AFM-IR spectra of single bacterial cells. Further on, this technique became more refined and found its way into many and highly diverse fields of application, including virology, DNA nanotechnology, polymer science, and materials science [5][6][7][8][9]. The importance of AFM-IR steadily grew over the past decade and its development has been described in detail in several review papers [1,3,9,10].…”