Effect of Heat Assisted Bath Sonication on the Mechanical and Thermal Deformation Behaviours of Graphene Nanoplatelets Filled Epoxy Polymer Composites

Jin-Luen Phua,Pei-Leng Teh,Supri Abdul Ghani,Cheow-Keat Yeoh

doi:10.1155/2016/9767183

Jin-Luen Phua, Pei-Leng Teh + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/9767183

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Abstract

Graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) filled epoxy composites ranged from 0.2 to 5 vol.% were prepared in this study using simple heat assisted bath sonication for better GNP dispersion and exfoliation. The effects of GNP filler loading via heat assisted bath sonication on the mechanical properties and thermal deformation behaviour were investigated. Improvements on flexural strength and fracture toughness up to 0.4 vol.% filler loading were recorded. Further addition of GNP filler loading shows a deteriorating behaviour on the mechanical properties on the composites. The bulk electrical conductivity of the epoxy composites is greatly improved with the addition of GNP filler loading up to 1 vol.%. The thermal expansion of epoxy composites is reduced with the addition of GNP; however poor thermal stability of the composites is observed.

Highlights

Graphene, the wonder material for the past decade, has drawn the attention of material engineers and scientists, for its remarkable attributes
Graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) filled epoxy composites ranged from 0.2 to 5 vol.% were prepared in this study using simple heat assisted bath sonication for better GNP dispersion and exfoliation
The bulk electrical conductivity of the epoxy composites is greatly improved with the addition of GNP filler loading up to 1 vol.%

Summary

Introduction

The wonder material for the past decade, has drawn the attention of material engineers and scientists, for its remarkable attributes. International Journal of Polymer Science factors, including processing methodology, particle size of filler [15,16,17,18], particle distribution [19], and particle aspect ratio [20, 21] Nanofillers, such as graphene nanoplatelets, are one of the promising steps to greatly reduce the filler loading, down to 0.01–1 vol.%, as reported previously, due to its 2D geometry and particle size, greatly reducing the percolation threshold [6, 22] and thermal conductivity [23,24,25]. GNP filler loading above 5 vol.% was not studied in this work because of the difficulty of processing due to the increased viscosity

Experimental

Results and Discussion

Conclusion