Improved mechanical and thermal properties of polypropylene filled with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) particles

Abstract

Improving thermal properties of polymer-based composites by using different types of fillers most of the time also reduces material elasticity and flexural strength, which is a significant problem for application. To address this problem, we have used two types of two-dimensional materials, such as reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) to achieve better thermal and mechanical properties. Great tensile strength and flexibility of both those 2D-materials combined with good thermal conductivity of hBN provided a synergistic effect for the resulting composites. Here we show the composites with 30% of hBN and 10% rGO by weight that have greatly improved flexural strength and flexural modulus as well as more than threefold increased thermal conductivity as compared to pristine polypropylene. Mechanical properties of composites only filled with hBN are significantly lower.