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Abstract
Plasma reactors can be used to surface functionalise industrial scale (tonnes/annum) quantities of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs). When used as fillers in polymer nanocomposites, surface functionalisation of GNPs can modify the chemical interactions at the filler-matrix interphase. In this work baseline (PG-10), plasma fluorinated (PG-CF), and aminated (PG-NH) GNPs were used to manufacture GNP epoxy nanocomposites, and their multifunctional properties tested. We find that the high aspect ratio and homogeneous dispersion of PG-NH enables a ~75% increase in filler modulus and reduces the thermal conductivity. While the high density of low lateral size particulates in PG-CF nanocomposites, reduces the filler modulus by ~50%, and increases the thermal conductivity. We link filler surface chemistry, to the dispersion and morphology of flakes in the matrix, and the resultant nanocomposite multifunctional properties. Demonstrating that surface functionalisation can be carried out in a scalable manner to improve filler-matrix property transfer in GNP epoxy nanocomposites.
