Modification of Graphene for Graphene/Novalac Epoxy Nanocompositesand characterization

The purpose of the present work is using nanocomposites as lighter, high strength and quality and moreefficient materials. The use of graphene is not limited to lab scale researches, for special property improvement of thematerial while they have found applications in many areas. Epoxy resins are among polymers that have widely used invarious industries. Excellent adhesion property of epoxy resins has been employed in adhesives industries. Despite ofdifferent kinds of epoxy resins, commonly used resins are synthesized from epichlorohydrin and bisphenol A. The maingoal of the present work is preparation and characterization of epoxy-graphene nanocomposites. Therefore, in thisproject, graphene was synthesized by Hummer's method by oxidizing graphite to graphene oxide (GO), dispersion ofGO nanolayers in the resin while it is being synthesized, curing of the produced resin mixture and finallycharacterization of them. In the next step, surface modification of GO was carried out in order to improve thedispersion in epoxy resin. In order to prepare the nanocomposite of epoxy/modified graphene by in situ methods, thephysical and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites and investigated. Therefore, the effect of surfacemodification of graphene, was studied on the mechanical properties of resulted nanocomposites.

Keywords:

Nanocomposites , Epichlorohydrin , bisphenol A , graphite oxide , Hummer's method