Issue 23, 2013

Epoxy nanocomposites filled with thermotropic liquid crystalline epoxy grafted graphene oxide

Abstract

Thermotropic liquid crystalline with epoxy groups grafted graphene oxide (LCE-g-GO) was synthesized by graphene oxide (GO), hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI), and 4,4′-bis-(2-hydroxyhexoxy) biphenyl (BP2) by using pyridine and dibutyltin dilaurate as catalyst and dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent. In this work, the LCE-g-GO nanosheets were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and polarizing optical microscopy (POM). The epoxy nanocomposites were fabricated by incorporating different LCE-g-GO loading using cast molding method. The results revealed that the incorporation of the LCE-g-GO resulted in a significant improvement in thermal and mechanical properties. The epoxy nanocomposite with 5 wt% LCE-g-GO produced an increase in the temperature for 5 wt% weight loss (T5%) by 47 °C and glass transition temperature (Tg) by 14 °C when compared with the neat epoxy. Moreover, at the addition of 5 wt% LCE-g-GO, the impact strength of the epoxy nanocomposite is 35.06 kJ m−2, which is 2 times higher than that of the neat epoxy resin (17.49 kJ m−2). Meanwhile, the tensile strength of the nanocomposite is significantly increased to 92.5 MPa from 54.3 MPa, while the elongation at break is also increased to 42.9% from 25.7% of the neat epoxy, respectively. Therefore, the presence of the LCE-g-GO in the epoxy matrix could make epoxy not only stronger but also tougher.

Graphical abstract: Epoxy nanocomposites filled with thermotropic liquid crystalline epoxy grafted graphene oxide

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Jan 2013
Accepted
03 Apr 2013
First published
04 Apr 2013

RSC Adv., 2013,3, 8915-8923

Epoxy nanocomposites filled with thermotropic liquid crystalline epoxy grafted graphene oxide

S. Lu, S. Li, J. Yu, Z. Yuan and B. Qi, RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 8915 DOI: 10.1039/C3RA40404H

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