Thermal and mechanical properties of self-healing epoxy/graphene nanocomposites

Abstract

Self-healing epoxy, graphene, thermal-mechanical-electrical properties. Abstract. The goal of the present work is to analyze the influence of the type of graphene and graphene content on the thermo-mechanical properties of an epoxy nanocomposite formed by an epoxy resin base on diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and 4-aminophenyl disulphide (AFD) as curing agent. This is a ?dynamic? epoxy matrix (vitrimer), which has reversible crosslinks based on aromatic disulphide bonds. The idea is to take the advantage of the high thermal conductivity of graphene nanocomposites to promote the self-healing. The study of the epoxy-graphene systems was carried out using two types of un-functionalized graphene with different nanoplatelet dimensions. Dispersions of GNPs in the DGEBA were studied by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) in order to investigate the curing reaction. Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis (DMTA) and tensile stress-strain measurements were performed to compare the glass transition temperature, the storage modulus in the glassy and rubber states, the Young modulus, deformation at break, mechanical strength and toughness. Electrical conductivity and combined tensile stress-electrical resistance experiments are reported for these nanocomposites.