Generic melt compounding strategy using reactive graphene towards high performance polyethylene/graphene nanocomposites. (16th June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Bin; Peng, Dan; Lv, Ruihua; Na, Bing; Liu, Hesheng; Yu, Zhong
• Is Part Of: Composites science and technology. Volume 177(2019)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 9
• Publication Date: 2019-06-16
• Subjects: Green processing -- Polymer-matrix composites -- Graphene -- Interface/interphase -- Rheological behavior; Composite materials -- Periodicals; Composite materials; Fibrous composites; Periodicals; 620.118
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compscitech.2019.04.013
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0266-3538

Abstract

Abstract: A reactive melt compounding technique using vinyl-grafted graphene was exploited for mass production of PE/graphene nanocomposites. The as-extruded nanocomposites had good filler dispersion and interfacial interaction, as evidenced by transmission electron microscopy and linear rheological results. Compared to neat PE, the nanocomposites with 1.0 wt% graphene showed one order of magnitude and nearly two orders of magnitude increment in complex viscosity and storage modulus at low frequency (<0.1 Hz), respectively. Due to strong interfacial interaction, the graphene nanoplatelets act as nucleating agents to increase the crystallization temperature of PE, but hinder the following growth of crystallites. As a result, mechanical properties and barrier to oxygen of the nanocomposites were obviously improved. This work provides a facile strategy for mass production of high-performance polyolefin/graphene nanocomposites and may be other polymer/graphene nanocomposites.