pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S04 - Functional, Nano and Bio Composites
Poster Presentation
 
 

Preparation and characterization of electrically conductive Thermoplastic polyurethane/Graphene-Graphene oxide nanocomposite porous films

Razeghi Mohammadali (1), Pircheraghi Gholamreza (1)*

(1) Sharif University of Technology - Tehran - Iran

Electrically conductive porous nanocomposite films have increasingly attracted interest because of the need for lightweight conductive materials in low filler content for potential application in EMI shielding. Graphene is an interesting candidate to prepare the conductive polymeric nanocomposites because of its excellent electrical conductivity, but obtaining a good dispersion of nonfunctional 2D nanomaterials inside the polar polymeric matrices is still a critical challenge. Instead, Graphene oxide nanoplatelets could almost properly be dispersed in polar polymeric matrices such as thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) due to its functional surface groups. This study demonstrates a facile approach to synthesis graphene and graphene oxide nanoplatelets (GNP) simultaneously by electrochemical method and fabrication of TPU/GNP nanocomposite with non-solvent induced phase separation. Different methods were used to characterize the microstructure and properties of samples including optical microscopy, rheological measurements, SEM, DSC and electrical conductivity. SEM images confirmed the porous microstructure of nanocomposite films. While, rheological and DSC measurements indicate that incorporation of GNPs changes the microstructure of segmented polyurethane by interaction between hard segments and nanofillers in the solution state and final sample, respectively. Finally, although graphene oxide is electrically insulated, it improves the dispersion of conductive graphene inside the TPU matrix, observed in SEM & optical microscopy images. This state of dispersion and formed 3D network of graphene/graphene oxide lead to 5 order of magnitude increase in conductivity of TPU porous nanocomposite films observed with only 3wt% of nanofiller.