Photo-responsive graphene for anti-corrosive and conductive strong, compliant silicone nanocomposites

石墨烯是一种超薄的碳基材料，由排列成二维片的单层碳原子组成。它表现出非凡的热和电子传导特性。石墨烯还具有很高的防腐性能潜力，因为它对气体和小分子的扩散表现出超高的抵抗力，并且由于其优异的氧化稳定性。然而，除非使用稳定剂，否则石墨烯的缺点是在聚合物基质中很难溶解/分散，而且很难加工。不幸的是，虽然稳定剂的使用改善了石墨烯的加工性，但它也降低了石墨烯纳米复合材料的性能。本项目旨在开发一种新的方法，使用一种智能的超薄石墨烯表面功能化，称为聚合物刷子。特别是，我们将设计可通过光照射从石墨烯表面剥离的聚合物刷子，从而使它们的使用能够改善石墨烯的加工，而不会损害其非凡的导热、导电和防腐性能。这项技术可能会对石墨烯在广泛技术中的应用产生相当大的影响。我们将与名为Sugru的硅基树脂系列背后的FormFormForm有限公司合作，探索使用这些材料来产生导热和导电的硅胶基质，以及此类复合材料在防腐涂料中的应用。由于石墨烯的特殊性质，实现这种柔性硅基复合材料的高性能，可以为这种硅基材料开辟广泛的应用领域。因此，我们将探索使用这项新技术来解决制造行业目前的一些挑战。

Graphene is an ultra-thin carbon-based material that is constituted of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged into a twodimensional sheet. It displays exceptional heat and electron conduction properties. Graphene also has a high potential foranti-corrosion properties as it displays ultra-high resistance to the diffusion of gases and small molecules and due to itsexcellent stability towards oxidation. However, graphene suffers from the drawback of being poorly soluble/dispersible inpolymer matrices and hard to process, unless stabilisers are used. Unfortunately, although the use of stabilisers leads toimprove processability, it also decreases the performance of graphene based nanocomposites.This project aims to develop a novel approach for the stabilisation of graphene using a type of smart ultra-thin graphenesurface functionalisation, termed polymer brush. In particular, we will design polymer brushes that can be cleaved from thegraphene surface by irradiation with light, hence enabling their use to improve the processing of graphene without impairingits exceptional heat and electrical conduction and anti-corrosion properties. This technology could have a considerableimpact on the application of graphene to a wide range of technologies.In collaboration with FormFormForm Ltd., the company behind the range of silicone-based resins called Sugru, we willexplore the use of these materials to generate heat and electrically conductive silicone based matrices, as well as theapplication of such composites as anti-corrosion coatings. Achieving high performance for such flexible silicone-basedcomposites, thanks to the exceptional properties of graphene, could open up a wide range of applications for such siliconebasedmaterials. Hence we will explore the use of this new technology to address some of the current challenges in themanufacturing industry.