Control of epoxy creep using graphene

Ardavan Zandiatashbar; Catalin R Picu; Nikhil Koratkar

doi:10.1002/smll.201102686

Control of epoxy creep using graphene

Small. 2012 Jun 11;8(11):1676-82. doi: 10.1002/smll.201102686. Epub 2012 Feb 29.

Authors

Ardavan Zandiatashbar¹, Catalin R Picu, Nikhil Koratkar

Affiliation

¹ Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA.

PMID: 22378720
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201102686

Abstract

The creep behavior of epoxy-graphene platelet (GPL) nanocomposites with different weight fractions of filler is investigated by macroscopic testing and nanoindentation. No difference is observed at low stress and ambient temperature between neat epoxy and nanocomposites. At elevated stress and temperature the nanocomposite with the optimal weight fraction, 0.1 wt% GPLs, creeps significantly less than the unfilled polymer. This indicates that thermally activated processes controlling the creep rate are in part inhibited by the presence of GPLs. The phenomenon is qualitatively similar at the macroscale and in nanoindentation tests. The results are compared with the creep of epoxy-single-walled (SWNT) and multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) composites and it is observed that creep in both these systems is similar to that in pure epoxy, that is, faster than creep in the epoxy-GPL system considered in this work.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.