Enhanced mechanical and thermal properties of polyurethane/functionalised graphene oxide composites by in situ polymerisation

Isocyanate-functionalised graphene (iGO) was prepared and incorporated into a thermoplastic polyurethane via an in situ polymerisation. Firstly, graphene oxide was successfully modified using a mixture of isocyanate- and diisocyanate-containing compounds, leading to the formation of good dispersions of resulting functional graphene oxide in organic solvents, such as N,N-dimethylacetamide and N,N-dimethylformamide. The addition of iGO into polyurethane matrix improved both mechanical and thermal properties in the polyurethane/iGO composites relative to neat polyurethane. An addition of only 0.03 wt-% of functionalised graphene into the polyurethane increased Young's modulus by 1.4 times and tensile strength by two times. Meanwhile, the elongation at break was similar to that of the neat polymer. In addition, dynamic mechanical analysis also confirmed the improvement in storage modulus of the polymer composites especially at high-temperature range. We believe that the developed modification approach for graphene oxide and polyurethane/graphene composites presented herein could be useful in polymer/graphene composite development.