Polymer compounding of graphene and related materials for advanced composite manufacturing

热塑性聚合物和复合材料可能是上世纪最伟大的材料发现之一，而3d打印正在成为本世纪最重要的制造业发现。它们结合在一起，使不同产品的功能实现了重大的技术进步，从包装到汽车到飞机，甚至是空间技术。这些技术的持续研究和进步将在未来几年影响社会的几乎所有领域。最近对热塑性复合材料和3d打印的研究是在发现了层状和二维材料（如石墨烯）之后进行的。石墨烯是单层石墨，其是单个原子厚，碳原子以六边形晶格排列。由于其出色的机械、电气、热学和光学特性等，它在研究和工业界引起了极大的兴趣。它在复合材料领域的应用已经使制造更轻，更强，导电材料成为可能，能够取代金属和目前在许多高性能系统中使用的复合材料。虽然石墨烯在这些领域显示出了其潜力，但现在的研究工作旨在将这些技术从“实验室”转移到“工厂”。这不仅包括复合材料石墨烯材料的大规模生产，还包括将其纳入和集成到聚合物和现有系统中的技术和工业规模工艺。本项目将通过研究石墨烯和层状材料及其热塑性复合材料的规模化生产技术，特别是增材制造技术，来解决这些问题。考虑到这些目标，本项目正在研究使用环境友好工艺的规模化生产石墨烯，例如使用高压均质化在水中液相剥离石墨烯。该技术提供了用于复合材料的高质量石墨烯的大规模生产，每年以吨级规模生产。所得材料的特征在于紫外-可见光谱，拉曼光谱，原子力显微镜，和扫描电子显微镜。接下来，通过几种可用的工艺将生产的材料掺入聚合物中，例如挤出以生产颗粒或3d打印长丝，或者通过高压均化器中的高剪切掺入粉末聚合物。使用热重分析、差示扫描量热法和激光闪光分析来分析所得复合材料的热性能，而拉伸测试用于机械表征。将这些技术应用于工业的最后一步需要展示制造技术。然后将复合材料压缩成型，3D打印和注塑成型，展示了石墨烯基材料从材料合成到最终设备制造的可行工业路线。

Thermoplastic polymers and composites were perhaps one of the greatest material discoveries of the past century, while 3d printing is becoming the most significant manufacturing discovery of this century. Combined, they have enabled significant technological advancement in the capabilities of different products ranging from packaging to automotive to planes, and even space technology. The continued research and advancement of these technologies will impact nearly all areas of society in coming years. The most recent research into thermoplastic composites and 3d printing has come on the heels of the discovery of layered and 2-dimensional materials, such as graphene. Graphene is single sheet of graphite, which is a single atom thick with carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. It has garnered excitement in the research and industrial community due to its outstanding mechanical, electrical, thermal, and optical properties, among others. It's application in the field of composites has already enabled the fabrication of lighter, stronger, conductive materials, capable of replacing metals and currently used composites in many high-performance systems. While graphene has shown its potential in these fields, research efforts are now aimed at moving these technologies from 'lab to fab'. This included not only the mass production of composite-ready graphene materials, but the techniques and industrial scale processes for their incorporation and integration into polymers and existing systems. This project will address each level of these considerations by investigating scale-up production techniques of graphene and layered materials and their thermoplastic composites with particular care for additive manufacturing techniques.Considering these aims, this project is investigating the scale up of graphene production using environmentally friendly processes, such as the liquid phase exfoliation of graphene in water through the use of high-pressure homogenization. This technique provides large scale production of high-quality graphene for use in composites at the ton-scale per year. The resulting material is characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Next, the produced materials are incorporated into polymers through several available processes, such as extrusion to produce pellets or 3d printing filaments, or through high shear incorporation in the high-pressure homogenizer with powdered polymers. The resulting composites are analysed using thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and laser flash analysis for the thermal properties, while tensile testing is used for mechanical characterization. The final step in moving these technologies to industry requires the demonstration of fabrication techniques. The composite materials are then compression molded, 3d printed, and injection molded, demonstrating the viable routes to industry for graphene-based materials from material synthesis to final device fabrication.