Investigation of the effect of Graphene Nanoplatelet content on Flexural Behavior, Surface Roughness and Water Absorption of a Graphene Nanoplatelets Reinforced Epoxy Nanocomposites

Abstract

In the present work, the effect of Graphene nanoPlatelets (GnP) content on the flexural, surface roughness, and water absorption behavior of a GnP reinforced epoxy composite was investigated. Different wt.% of GnP (0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1 wt.%) was added into the epoxy matrix through the sonication method followed by the ball milling. The results indicate a significant enhancement in the flexural properties of the epoxy nanocomposite with the addition of GnP in the epoxy matrix. The optimum enhancement in the properties was obtained at 0.25 wt.% GnP incorporated epoxy composites. The increase in flexural strength and flexural modulus results were noticed as 42.7% and 49.2% when compared with neat epoxy. The surface roughness value for the loading of 0.25 wt.% of GnP into the epoxy showed a drop of 48.7% when compared with that of the neat epoxy sample. The loading of 0.25 wt.% of GnP into the epoxy also reduces the water absorption from 0.125% for the neat epoxy sample to 0.067% for the composite sample. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images of the fractured surface (flexural samples) of the GnP embedded epoxy composites show the river like pattern, which is the result of the better dispersion of the GnP in the epoxy matrix and thus shows improvement in flexural behaviour of such composite materials.