title: Mechanical property and structure of covalent functionalised graphene/epoxy nanocomposites.
abstract: Thermally reduced graphene nanoplatelets were covalently functionalised via Bingel reaction to improve their dispersion and interfacial bonding with an epoxy resin. Functionalised graphene were characterized by microscopic, thermal and spectroscopic techniques. Thermal analysis of functionalised graphene revealed a significantly higher thermal stability compared to graphene oxide. Inclusion of only 0.1 wt% of functionalised graphene in an epoxy resin showed 22% increase in flexural strength and 18% improvement in storage modulus. The improved mechanical properties of nanocomposites is due to the uniform dispersion of functionalised graphene and strong interfacial bonding between modified graphene and epoxy resin as confirmed by microscopy observations.
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia [2] Carbon Nexus, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Minoo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Naebe
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Western Sydney, Kingswood, NSW, 2751.
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amini
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia [2] Carbon Nexus, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Khayyam
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia [2] Carbon Nexus, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Nishar
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hameed
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Lu Hua
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia [2] Carbon Nexus, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Bronwyn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fox