Highly conductive and light-weight acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer/reduced graphene nanocomposites with segregated conductive structure

Abstract

This work proposed an efficient method to synthesize acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) copolymer/reduced graphene (rGO) composites via latex technology, aiming to combine the excellent conductivity of graphene sheets and numerous advantages of ABS resin involving heat resistance, chemical resistance, ease of processing and recyclability. Morphologies of resultant composites were shown by the electrical scanning microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images that the rGO sheets tightly wrapped the surface of ABS microspheres, as well as filling in the gap of adjacent microspheres in the ABS/rGO composite matrix. Segregated conductive structure was realized by the selective distribution of rGO and the larger excluded volume provided by stable ABS microspheres. The obtained ABS/rGO composites exhibited excellent electrical conductive performance with an ultra-low percolation threshold of only 0.062 vol% and higher electrical conductivity of 0.09 S/m. Moreover, its thermal conductivity and mechanical properties were also improved.