Simultaneous reduction and surface functionalization of graphene oxide with POSS for reducing fire hazards in epoxy composites

Simultaneous reduction and surface functionalization of graphene oxide (GO) was realized by simple refluxing of GO with octa-aminophenyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (OapPOSS) without the use of any reducing agents. The presence of OapPOSS made the hydrophilic GO hydrophobic, as evidenced by the good dispersion of the OapPOSS-reduced GO (OapPOSS-rGO) in tetrahydrofuran solvent. The structure of OapPOSS-rGO was confirmed by XPS, FTIR and TEM. A morphological study showed that, due to the good interfacial interaction between the functionalized graphene and epoxy, OapPOSS-rGO was dispersed well in the matrix. With the incorporation of 2.0 wt% of OapPOSS-rGO, the onset thermal degradation temperature of the epoxy composite was significantly increased by 43 degrees C. Moreover, the peak heat release rate, total heat release and CO production rate values of OapPOSS-rGO/EP were significantly reduced by 49%, 37% and 58%, respectively, compared to those of neat epoxy. This dramatically reduced fire hazards was mainly attributed to the synergestic effect of OapPOSS-rGO: the adsorption and barrier effect of reduced graphene oxide inhibited the heat and gas release and promoted the formation of graphitized carbons, while OapPOSS improved the thermal oxidative resistance of the char layer.