Modification of bismaleimide resin by using γ-aminopropyl triethoxysilane functionalised graphene oxide

ABSTRACTIn this paper, γ-aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES) was first used to covalent functionalised graphene oxide (GO). The resulting APTES functionalised GO (APTES-f-GO) was then incorporated into the bismaleimide (BMI) resin to improve its mechanical properties. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectra and Raman spectroscopy were used to characterise APTES-f-GO. The study showed that the APTES-f-GO/BMI nanocomposites presented higher impact strength, flexural strength, tensile strength and elastic modulus than the neat BMI resin. The maximum increment of impact strength, flexural strength, tensile strength and elastic modulus of APTES-f-GO/BMI nanocomposites were 84.3, 54.5, 31.4 and 35.6%, respectively. The scanning electron microscopy photographs show that the fracture morphology of APTES-f-GO/BMI composite is entirely different from that of BMI resin, which exhibits typical ductile fracture features.