Mohannad Naeem Houshi , Mathias Aakyiir , Sanjay Stephen , Ruoyu Wang , Hsu-Chiang Kuan , Qingshi Meng , Jun Ma
{"title":"A green and solvent-free method for simultaneously producing graphene nanoplatelets, nanoscrolls, and nanodots and functionalizing their surface for epoxy nanocomposites","authors":"Mohannad Naeem Houshi , Mathias Aakyiir , Sanjay Stephen , Ruoyu Wang , Hsu-Chiang Kuan , Qingshi Meng , Jun Ma","doi":"10.1016/j.smmf.2023.100018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smmf.2023.100018","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Graphene is an emerging class of multifunctional additives for plastic manufacturing. However, achieving the exfoliation and dispersion of graphene in polymers such as epoxy has been a significant challenge, typically requiring chemical modification or oxidation as well as organic solvents and/or surfactants, because exceptionally high-surface area graphene often stack themselves. Herein we report the preparation, exfoliation, surface modification, and dispersion of graphene nanomaterials in epoxy by a simple ball milling process. The prepared graphene nanomaterials exhibit a range of morphologies, i.e. nanoplatelets, nanoscrolls, and nanodots. These materials demonstrate high electrical conductivity, 1750 ± 41 S/cm, for a film of ∼6 μm in thickness. Furthermore, as the graphene nanomaterials' surface was functionalized with amine groups for affinity with epoxy, the nanomaterials were found to disperse readily in epoxy. At 0.25 vol% of graphene, the epoxy nanocomposite exhibited a 52% increment of fracture toughness and an 11% increment of Young's modulus. Notably, an electrical percolation threshold was observed at 0.52 vol% for the nanocomposites.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":101164,"journal":{"name":"Smart Materials in Manufacturing","volume":"1 ","pages":"Article 100018"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50199636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}