title: Superior Mechanical Properties of Epoxy Composites Reinforced by 3D Interconnected Graphene Skeleton.
abstract: Epoxy-based composites reinforced by three-dimensional graphene skeleton (3DGS) were fabricated in resin transfer molding method with respect to the difficulty in good dispersion and arrangement of graphene sheets in composites by directly mixing graphene and epoxy. 3DGS was synthesized in the process of self-assembly and reduction with poly(amidoamine) dendrimers. In the formation of 3DGS, graphene sheets were in good dispersion and ordered state, which resulted in exceptional mechanical properties and thermal stability for epoxy composites. For 3DGS/epoxy composites, the tensile and compressive strengths significantly increased by 120.9% and 148.3%, respectively, as well as the glass transition temperature, which increased by a notable 19 °C, unlike the thermal exfoliation graphene/epoxy composites via direct-mixing route, which increased by only 0.20 wt % content of fillers. Relative to the graphene/epoxy composites in direct-mixing method mentioned in literature, the increase in tensile and compressive strengths of 3DGS/epoxy composites was at least twofold and sevenfold, respectively. It can be expected that 3DGS, which comes from preforming graphene sheets orderly and dispersedly, would replace graphene nanosheets in polymer nanocomposite reinforcement and endow composites with unique structure and some unexpected performance.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Braided Composites, Ministry of Education, School of Textiles, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Braided Composites, Ministry of Education, School of Textiles, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Braided Composites, Ministry of Education, School of Textiles, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Kunyue
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Braided Composites, Ministry of Education, School of Textiles, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Braided Composites, Ministry of Education, School of Textiles, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Braided Composites, Ministry of Education, School of Textiles, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhiwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Braided Composites, Ministry of Education, School of Textiles, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Braided Composites, Ministry of Education, School of Textiles, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chuansheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Braided Composites, Ministry of Education, School of Textiles, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Meijun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ma
keywords: epoxy-based composites; mechanical properties; ordered arrangement; resin transfer molding; three-dimensional graphene skeleton