Functionalising graphene for improvements in dispersion for enhancement of graphene reinforced composites

在将石墨烯纳米片(GNPs)引入热塑性塑料和环氧树脂等体系中时，经常面临的一个问题是实现GNPs在目标介质中的良好分散，而不发生重新团聚，这导致石墨烯复合体系中最终材料的性能较差且不一致。这一点，再加上缺乏可靠的材料特性，是这些材料适应赛车运动和建筑等市场的关键障碍。GNPs的功能化有助于改善体系内的分散性，但用于在GNPs上赋予官能团的过程会破坏材料的基面，从而降低材料在机械增强和导电性等领域的性能。在这里，2-DTech(2DT)将与国家物理实验室(NPL)密切合作，通过湿化学和等离子体方法生产一系列功能化GNP，目的是改善GNP在目标聚合物系统中的分散。NPL现有的专业技术和仪器将用于确定最终功能化材料中存在正确的官能团，并通过一套高端仪器和测量技术确保基面保持无缺陷。这将使优化的功能化GNPs的开发成为可能，这些GNPs将被整合到聚合物系统中，并进行测试以显示一致的最终性能，从而提高这些材料采用的两个关键障碍。

A problem regularly faced when trying to incorporate graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) into systems such as thermoplastics and epoxy resins is achieving a good dispersion of the GNPs within the target medium without re-agglomeration occurring which leads to poor and inconsistent final materials performance in the graphene composite systems. This, along with a lack of reliable materials characterisation are key barrier to adaptation of these materials in markets such as motorsport and construction. Functionalisation of GNPs can help improve the dispersion within systems, however the processes used to impart the functional groups upon the GNPs can damage the basal plane of the materials, thus decreasing materials performance in areas such as mechanical reinforcement and electrical conductivity. Here 2-DTech (2DT) will work closely with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to produce a range of functionalised GNPs via wet chemical and plasma approaches with an aim of improving GNP dispersion within target polymer systems. The expertise and instrumentation available at NPL will be used to determine that the correct functional groups are present within the final functionalised materials and that the basal planes remain defect free via a suite of high-end instrumentation and measurement techniques. This will allow for the development of optimised functionalised GNPs which will be incorporated into polymer systems and be tested to show consistent final performance, thus elevating two of the key barriers to adoption for these materials.