Study of Galvanic Charging-Discharging Properties of Graphene Nanoplatelets Incorporated Epoxy-Carbon Fabric Composites

Abstract

Polymer composites are increasing in demand in energy storage applications including in the electronic as well as electrical industries due to the ease of processing of these materials with associated advantages like light weight, corrosion resistance, and high mechanical strength. In this investigation, efforts are made to enhance the charging and discharging properties of epoxy/carbon fabric composite by the addition of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) into the epoxy/ carbon matrix. The performance of the composites with graphene platelets of 0.5 to 5 wt. % in epoxy were characterized and 1wt.% percolation threshold was observed poor performance in gravimetric charge and discharge characteristics were observed. Based on the percolation threshold Epoxy-Carbon fabric (EC) composites and Epoxy-Carbon fabric with 1 wt. % of GNP (ECG1) composites were fabricated using a vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding technique. The electrochemical performance was studied using the Cyclovoltammetry test and 0.1 M of Na2SO4 as a supporting electrolyte. The Galvanostatic Charge-Discharge characteristics were carried-out for EC and ECG1 at a scan rate of 80 sec, 300 sec, 4000 sec with 2 runs and 8 runs. The composite EC didn’t not show GCD characteristics, but the symmetry of charge-discharge characteristics observed for ECG1 and same are discussed in this paper. These highly effective and excellent characteristics demonstrate that Epoxy-GNP-CF composites may be promising composites for practical energy storage applications.