An effective approach to the fabrication of progressive epoxy nanocomposites by the incorporation of hydroxyl-terminated dendrimers functionalized graphene oxide (GO-TCT-Tris) is reported. The relationship between surface grafting, chemical construction, morphology, dispersion, and interfacial interaction as well as the corresponding mechanical properties of the composites were studied in detail. It was shown that hydroxyl-terminated triazine derivatives have been resoundingly bonded onto the GO surface through covalent bonding, which effectively improved the dispersion and compatibility of GO sheets in epoxy resin. The tensile and flexural tests manifested that the GO-TCT-Tris/epoxy composites exhibited greater tensile/flexural strength and modulus than either the pure epoxy or the GO/epoxy composites. For GO-TCT-Tris (0.10 wt%)/epoxy composite, the tensile strength and elastic modulus increased from 63 ± 4 to 89 ± 6 MPa (41.27%) and from 2.8 ± 0.1 to 3.6 ± 0.2 GPa (28.57%), and the flexural strength and modulus increased from 106 ± 5 to 158 ± 6 MPa (49.06%) and from 3.0 ± 0.1 to 3.5 ± 0.2 GPa (16.67%), respectively, compared to the pure epoxy matrix. Moreover, the fractographic analysis also illustrated the ameliorative interfacial interaction between GO-TCT-Tris and epoxy matrix.
Keywords: epoxy resin; graphene oxide; mechanical properties; triazine derivatives.