TY - JOUR
T1 - Graphene oxide - Polyelectrolyte nanomembranes
AU - Kulkarni, Dhaval D.
AU - Choi, Ikjun
AU - Singamaneni, Srikanth S.
AU - Tsukruk, Vladimir V.
PY - 2010/8/24
Y1 - 2010/8/24
N2 - Owing to its remarkable electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties, graphene, an atomic layer of carbon, is considered to be an excellent two-dimensional filler for polymer nanocomposites with outstanding mechanical strength along with the potential for excellent electrical and thermal properties. One of the critical limitations with conventional fillers is that the loading fraction required for achieving significant improvement in mechanical properties is relatively high, frequently reaching 50% for maximum strength. Here, we demonstrate that the mechanical properties of ultrathin laminated nanocomposites can be significantly enhanced by the incorporation of small amounts of a dense monolayer of planar graphene oxide (GO) flakes. Negatively charged functionalized graphene oxide layers were incorporated into polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) fabricated in a layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly via Langmuir - gett (LB) deposition. These LbL-LB graphene oxide nanocomposite films were released as robust freely standing membranes with large lateral dimensions (centimeters) and a thickness of around 50 nm. Micromechanical measurements showed enhancement of the elastic modulus by an order of magnitude, from 1.5 GPa for pure LbL membranes to about 20 GPa for only 8.0 vol % graphene oxide encapsulated LbL membranes. These tough nanocomposite PEMs can be freely suspended over large (few millimeters) apertures and sustain large mechanical deformations.
AB - Owing to its remarkable electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties, graphene, an atomic layer of carbon, is considered to be an excellent two-dimensional filler for polymer nanocomposites with outstanding mechanical strength along with the potential for excellent electrical and thermal properties. One of the critical limitations with conventional fillers is that the loading fraction required for achieving significant improvement in mechanical properties is relatively high, frequently reaching 50% for maximum strength. Here, we demonstrate that the mechanical properties of ultrathin laminated nanocomposites can be significantly enhanced by the incorporation of small amounts of a dense monolayer of planar graphene oxide (GO) flakes. Negatively charged functionalized graphene oxide layers were incorporated into polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) fabricated in a layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly via Langmuir - gett (LB) deposition. These LbL-LB graphene oxide nanocomposite films were released as robust freely standing membranes with large lateral dimensions (centimeters) and a thickness of around 50 nm. Micromechanical measurements showed enhancement of the elastic modulus by an order of magnitude, from 1.5 GPa for pure LbL membranes to about 20 GPa for only 8.0 vol % graphene oxide encapsulated LbL membranes. These tough nanocomposite PEMs can be freely suspended over large (few millimeters) apertures and sustain large mechanical deformations.
KW - Free-standing
KW - Graphene
KW - Layer-by-layer assembly
KW - Mechanical properties
KW - Polymer nanocomposites
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78650152423&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/nn101204d
DO - 10.1021/nn101204d
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:78650152423
SN - 1936-0851
VL - 4
SP - 4667
EP - 4676
JO - ACS nano
JF - ACS nano
IS - 8
ER -