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Graphene-based composite materials

Abstract

Graphene sheets—one-atom-thick two-dimensional layers of sp2-bonded carbon—are predicted to have a range of unusual properties. Their thermal conductivity and mechanical stiffness may rival the remarkable in-plane values for graphite (3,000 W m-1 K-1 and 1,060 GPa, respectively); their fracture strength should be comparable to that of carbon nanotubes for similar types of defects1,2,3; and recent studies have shown that individual graphene sheets have extraordinary electronic transport properties4,5,6,7,8. One possible route to harnessing these properties for applications would be to incorporate graphene sheets in a composite material. The manufacturing of such composites requires not only that graphene sheets be produced on a sufficient scale but that they also be incorporated, and homogeneously distributed, into various matrices. Graphite, inexpensive and available in large quantity, unfortunately does not readily exfoliate to yield individual graphene sheets. Here we present a general approach for the preparation of graphene-polymer composites via complete exfoliation of graphite9 and molecular-level dispersion of individual, chemically modified graphene sheets within polymer hosts. A polystyrene–graphene composite formed by this route exhibits a percolation threshold10 of 0.1 volume per cent for room-temperature electrical conductivity, the lowest reported value for any carbon-based composite except for those involving carbon nanotubes11; at only 1 volume per cent, this composite has a conductivity of 0.1 S m-1, sufficient for many electrical applications12. Our bottom-up chemical approach of tuning the graphene sheet properties provides a path to a broad new class of graphene-based materials and their use in a variety of applications.

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Figure 1: Process flow of graphene–polymer composite fabrication.
Figure 2: SEM and TEM images of graphene–polystyrene composite.
Figure 3: Electrical conductivity of the polystyrene–graphene composites as a function of filler volume fraction.

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Acknowledgements

SEM was done at the Electron Probe Instrumentation Centre at Northwestern University. This work was funded by the NASA University Research, Engineering and Technology Institute on Bio-Inspired Materials (BIMat) and by the NSF NIRT grant ‘Nanostructured carbons from self-assembled block copolymer precursors: From synthesis and characterization to devices’. We appreciate J. A. Ibers and A. L. Ruoff for critically reading an early version of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to SonBinh T. Nguyen or Rodney S. Ruoff.

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Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Notes

This file contains Supplementary Methods 1 and 2 (Composite samples preparation via hot pressing; Nanofillers made from graphite oxide by two competing methods: chemical reduction and thermal expansion.) and Supplementary Discussion (Explanation of electron diffraction patterns). (PDF 321 kb)

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Stankovich, S., Dikin, D., Dommett, G. et al. Graphene-based composite materials. Nature 442, 282–286 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04969

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