The toughness and conductivity of hybrid graphene-rubber modified epoxies

摘要

This work has demonstrated a possible route for the production of simultaneously tough and conductive epoxy based nanocomposites. CTBN rubber appears unsuitable as a toughening agent as the phase separation process during the curing cycle causes agglomeration of the conductive GNP, resulting in a loss of conductivity of the overall nanocomposite. CSR particles, on the other hand appear well suited, as the epoxy-GNP-CSR mixture tends to separate out into a quasi co-continuous structure containing GNP rich regions and CSR rich regions. In some cases the resultant conductivity is better than that of the epoxy-GNP polymer without the additional CSR particles. The improvements in fracture energy caused by the addition of rubber are only moderately attenuated by the presence of GNPs.