Highly Enhancing Electrical, Thermal, and Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene/Graphite Intercalation Compound Composites by In Situ Expansion during Melt Mixing

Polypropylene/graphite intercalation compound (PP/GIC) composites are prepared via melt mixing at three different temperatures (180, 200, and 220 °C). The dispersion of GICs in the composites is clearly improved due to the increased interlamellar spacing caused by in situ expansion of GICs at higher temperatures, which facilitates the intercalation of PP molecular chains into the GIC galleries. As a result, the PP/GIC composite with 10 wt% GICs prepared at 220 °C (PG220) presents a dielectric constant of about 1.3 × 108 at 103 Hz, which is about six orders higher than that of the composite prepared at 180 °C (PG180). Moreover, the thermal conductivity of the PG220 sample (0.63 Wm−1K−1) is 61.5% higher than that of the PG180 sample. The well-dispersed GICs accelerates the crystallization of PP by increasing the nucleation point and enhances the thermal stability of the composites. The PG220 sample shows a Young’s modulus that is about 21.2% higher than that of the PG180 samples. The results provide an efficient approach for fabricating polymer/GIC composites without complex exfoliation and dispersion processes.

Novel Cost-effective Synthesis of Non-doped Turbostratic Graphene from Graphite Intercalation compound: Development of a Durable and Stable Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Expensive and high-temperature methods like chemical vapour deposition and epitaxial growth are mainly investigated for turbostratic graphene preparation whereas, cost-effective production by a top-down approach from graphite is presented here....

Influence of different oxidation mechanisms on the exfoliation of intercalated graphite bisulfate using two types of graphite

ABSTRACT Three different processes for the synthetization of exfoliated graphite intercalation compound have been tested in two different type of graphite, one in powder form and the other one as flakes. Each graphite was oxidized applying the same experimental conditions (sonification, neutralization, filtering and drying) but using three different auxiliary oxidizers (H2O2, HNO3 and KClO3) previously mixed with H2SO4. The resulting synthesized samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The Raman spectra analysis of the oxidized samples correspond to that of a graphene of few layers. Stronger delamination and exfoliation were observed in the samples of graphite, originally in powder form, treated with H2SO4/HNO3.