Strong graphene oxide nanocomposites from aqueous hybrid liquid crystals

Journal article (2020)

Authors

M. Hegde Novel Aerospace Materials - Aerospace Engineering , University of North Carolina
Lin Yang Brookhaven National Laboratory
Francesco Vita Università Politecnica delle Marche
R. van de Watering Education AE
B. Norder ChemE/O&O groep - AS
U.L. Lafont European Space Agency (ESA), Novel Aerospace Materials - Aerospace Engineering
Oriano Francescangeli Università Politecnica delle Marche
S.J. Picken ChemE/Advanced Soft Matter - AS
T.J. Dingemans University of North Carolina, Novel Aerospace Materials - Aerospace Engineering
More Authors... External organisation
Research Group
Novel Aerospace Materials (Aerospace Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2020 M. Hegde, Lin Yang, Francesco Vita, R. van de Watering, B. Norder, U.L. Lafont, Oriano Francescangeli, S.J. Picken, T.J. Dingemans, More Authors
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14618-0
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Published Date

2020

Language

English

Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Department

Aerospace Structures & Materials

Research Group

Novel Aerospace Materials

Abstract

Combining polymers with small amounts of stiff carbon-based nanofillers such as graphene or graphene oxide is expected to yield low-density nanocomposites with exceptional mechanical properties. However, such nanocomposites have remained elusive because of incompatibilities between fillers and polymers that are further compounded by processing difficulties. Here we report a water-based process to obtain highly reinforced nanocomposite films by simple mixing of two liquid crystalline solutions: a colloidal nematic phase comprised of graphene oxide platelets and a nematic phase formed by a rod-like high-performance aramid. Upon drying the resulting hybrid biaxial nematic phase, we obtain robust, structural nanocomposites reinforced with graphene oxide.