TY - JOUR
T1 - Highly aligned, ultralarge-size reduced graphene oxide/polyurethane nanocomposites: Mechanical properties and moisture permeability
AU - Yousefi, Nariman
AU - Gudarzi, Mohsen Moazzami
AU - Zheng, Qingbin
AU - Lin, Xiuyi
AU - Shen, Xi
AU - Jia, Jingjing
AU - Sharif, Farhad
AU - Kim, Jang Kyo
N1 - Funding Information:
The project was supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong SAR (Project Number: 614010). NY was a recipient of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship. Part of the work was carried out when MMG was a visiting graduate scholar at HKUST.
PY - 2013/6
Y1 - 2013/6
N2 - Polyurethane (PU) nanocomposite films containing highly-aligned graphene sheets are produced. Aqueous dispersion of ultralarge-size graphene oxide (GO) is in situ reduced in waterborne polyurethane, resulting in fine dispersion and high degree of orientation of graphene sheets, especially at high graphene contents. The PU/reduced GO nanocomposites present remarkable 21- and 9-fold increases in tensile modulus and strength, respectively, with 3 wt.% graphene content. The agreement between the experiments and theoretical predictions for tensile modulus proves that the graphene sheets are indeed dispersed individually on the molecular scale and oriented in the polymer matrix to form a layered structure. The moisture permeability of the nanocomposites presents a systematic decrease with increasing graphene content, clearly indicating the impermeable graphene sheets acting as moisture barrier. The synergy arising from the very high aspect ratio and horizontal alignment of the graphene sheets is responsible for this finding.
AB - Polyurethane (PU) nanocomposite films containing highly-aligned graphene sheets are produced. Aqueous dispersion of ultralarge-size graphene oxide (GO) is in situ reduced in waterborne polyurethane, resulting in fine dispersion and high degree of orientation of graphene sheets, especially at high graphene contents. The PU/reduced GO nanocomposites present remarkable 21- and 9-fold increases in tensile modulus and strength, respectively, with 3 wt.% graphene content. The agreement between the experiments and theoretical predictions for tensile modulus proves that the graphene sheets are indeed dispersed individually on the molecular scale and oriented in the polymer matrix to form a layered structure. The moisture permeability of the nanocomposites presents a systematic decrease with increasing graphene content, clearly indicating the impermeable graphene sheets acting as moisture barrier. The synergy arising from the very high aspect ratio and horizontal alignment of the graphene sheets is responsible for this finding.
KW - A. Nano-structures
KW - A. Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs)
KW - B. Mechanical properties
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84875144393&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.compositesa.2013.02.005
DO - 10.1016/j.compositesa.2013.02.005
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84875144393
SN - 1359-835X
VL - 49
SP - 42
EP - 50
JO - Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
JF - Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
ER -