Bihe Yuan

Abstract: Graphene is prepared from graphite by pressurized oxidation and multiplex reduction. The pressurized oxidation is advantageous in easy operation and size-control, and the multiplex reduction, based on ammonia and hydrazine, produces single-atom-thick graphene (0.4–0.6 nm thick) which can be directly observed by atomic force microscopy. A masterbatch strategy, which is feasible in “soluble” thermoplastic polymers, is developed to disperse graphene into poly(lactic acid) by melt blending. The graphene is well dispersed and the obtained nanocomposites present markedly improved crystallinity, rate of crystallization, mechanical properties, electrical conductivity and fire resistance. The properties are dependent on the dispersion and loading content of graphene, showing percolation threshold at 0.08 wt%. Graphene reinforces the nanocomposites but cuts down the interactions among the polymer matrix, which leads to reduced mechanical properties. Competition of the reinforcing and the reducing causes inflexions around the percolation threshold. The roles of the heat barrier and mass barrier effects of graphene in the thermal degradation and combustion properties of the nanocomposites are discussed and clarified.

TL;DR: In this paper, reduced graphene oxide (FRGO) wrapped with a phosphorus and nitrogen-containing flame retardant (FR) was successfully prepared via a simple one-pot method and well characterized.

TL;DR: In this article, a novel approach to fabricate covalently functionalized graphene oxide (fGO)/polypropylene (PP) nanocomposites has been reported, which achieves good dispersion with exfoliated and intercalated nanostructure and strong interfacial adhesion in PP.

TL;DR: In this article, expandable graphite (EG), graphene, graphite oxide (GO), and organic phosphate functionalized graphite oxides (FGO) were prepared and incorporated into epoxy resin (EP) matrix via in situ polymerization to prepare EP based composites.

TL;DR: In this article, a novel modification strategy for enhancing the dispersion and flame retardant efficiency of graphene was proposed, where the incorporation of functionalized graphene oxide (FGO) results in the reduction of peak heat release rate, total heat release and smoke release of polypropylene (PP) matrix during combustion.