Elastomer based nanocomposites with reduced graphene oxide nanofillers allow for enhanced tensile and electrical properties

Here, flexible nanocomposites based on reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and commercial elastomers such as poly (acrylonitrile-ran-butadiene) (PANB) and poly (styrene-block-isoprene-block-styrene) (SIS) have been developed with enhanced electrical and mechanical properties due to the RGO fine dispersion. The RGO incorporation via stepwise addition resulted in well-dispersed RGO platelets in all polymer matrices. This allowed us to attain a comparatively low percolation threshold concentration (4.2 wt.% for all nanocomposites), at which the conductivity and current flow through the nanocomposites appreciably increased. The nanocomposite conductivity further increased with the increase of the RGO loading independently of the polymer type (PANB or SIS) or PANB molecular weight and acrylonitrile content. The highest conductivities obtained in this work are in the range 7.5–8.0 × 10–5 S/cm. Mechanical properties measured for SIS and PANB nanocomposites showed that tensile strength increases (in the case of SIS, by a factor of three) with the increase of the RGO content most likely due to physical crosslinking of the polymer with RGO. Improved electrical and mechanical properties of these nanocomposites make them promising as microwave absorbers or antistatic coatings.