Ionic liquid-modified graphene/poly(vinyl alcohol) composite with enhanced properties

Dispersion and Stabilization of Exfoliated Graphene in Ionic Liquids

The liquid-phase exfoliation of graphite is one of the most promising methods to increase production and commercial availability of graphene. Because ionic liquids can be easily obtained with chosen molecular structures and tuneable physicochemical properties, they can be use as media to optimize the exfoliation of graphite. The understanding of the interactions involved between graphite and various chemical functions in the solvent ions will be helpful to find liquids capable of dissociating and stabilizing important quantities of large graphene layers. After a step of sonication, as a mechanical precursor, samples of suspended exfoliated graphene in different ionic liquids have been characterized experimentally in terms of flake size, number of layers, total concentration and purity of the exfoliated material. Nine different ionic liquids based on imidazolium, pyrrolidinium and ammonium cations and on bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, triflate, dicyanamide, tricyanomethanide, and methyl sulfate anions have been tested. UV-vis, Raman and X-ray photoelectron in addition to high resolution transmission electron and atomic force microscopy have been selected to characterize suspended exfoliated graphene in ionic liquids. The number of layers in the flakes exfoliated, the size and concentration depend of the structure of the ionic liquid selected. In order to obtain large flake sizes, ionic liquids with bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide anions and a cation with an alkyl chain of medium length should be selected. Smaller cation and anion favors the exfoliation of graphene. The exfoliation caused the formation of C-H bonds and the oxidation of the graphitic surface.

Using an Ionic Liquid to Reduce the Electrical Percolation Threshold in Biobased Thermoplastic Polyurethane/Graphene Nanocomposites

Biobased thermoplastic polyurethane (bTPU)/unmodified graphene (GR) nanocomposites (NCs) were obtained by melt-mixing in a lab-scaled conventional twin-screw extruder. Alternatively, GR was also modified with an ionic liquid (GR-IL) using a simple preparation method with the aim of improving the dispersion level. XRD diffractograms indicated a minor presence of well-ordered structures in both bTPU/GR and bTPU/GR-IL NCs, which also showed, as observed by TEM, nonuniform dispersion. Electrical conductivity measurements pointed to an improved dispersion level when GR was modified with the IL, because the bTPU/GR-IL NCs showed a significantly lower electrical percolation threshold (1.99 wt%) than the bTPU/GR NCs (3.21 wt%), as well as higher conductivity values. Young’s modulus increased upon the addition of the GR (by 65% with 4 wt%), as did the yield strength, while the ductile nature of the bTPU matrix maintained in all the compositions, with elongation at break values above 200%. This positive effect on the mechanical properties caused by the addition of GR maintained or slightly increased when GR-IL was used, pointing to the success of this method of modifying the nanofiller to obtain bTPU/GR NCs.