Preparation and Thermal Performance of Carboxyl Modified Graphene Oxide/Polyacrynitrile Composite Films

A method was developed to carboxyl modification of graphene oxide with little damage to graphene sheets, and the thermal performance of carboxyl modified graphene oxide/ polyacrylonitrile film was investigated. XPS analysis revealed that about 6.3% of carboxyl group was introduced to the graphene oxide sheets. The thermal stability of polyacrylonitrile film was improved by evenly dispersing 0.5 wt % modified graphene oxide to the polyacrylonitrile solution. Magnificent increase in cyclization degree was found for the stabilized composite film. The composite film resulted in 12% higher carbon yield than pure polyacrylonitrile after stabilization, indicating the potential advantage in preparing graphene reinforced carbon material by incorporating GO–COOH to PAN.