Synthesis and characterization of graphene-epoxy nanocomposites

Graphene, a monolayer of carbon atoms arranged in a two dimensional lattice, has attracted great attention in recent years due to its extra ordinary properties and potential applications. One obvious application of graphene is in the field of nano-composites. In this work, graphene platelets (GPL) reinforced with epoxy nano-composites were fabricated by using soft molding technique in two different ratios with two different solvents. Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate the structure of graphene and graphene reinforced composites. Tensile and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) in three point bending mode were used to investigate the mechanical properties of the composites. The tensile strength and strain to failure of nanocomposites of GPL reinforced epoxy nanocomposite were enhanced by 9.31 % and 34.78 %, respectively, while small improvement is observed in the elasticity modulus. Dynamic mechanical analysis has shown that with the addition of 0.1 and 0.5 wt.-% graphene nanoplatelets, storage modulus has increased by 20 and 46 % on the glassy region, respectively. The glass transition temperature is not affected with addition of graphene.