Electric heating behavior of flexible grapheneinatural rubber conductor with self-healing conductive network

Graphene (GE)/natural rubber (NR) composites (RGE) with a conductive segregated network (RGES) are prepared by latex mixing. Results show that the RGES composite with GE content of 10 phr (RGES-10) exhibits excellent electrical conductivity of 2.7 S/m and good flexibility. After 4 tensile cycles and subsequent thermal treatment, the electrical conductivity of RGES-10 shifts to 4.4 Sim, nearly 2 times higher than that of unstretched RGES-10 samples. The increased conductivity indicates that the destroyed networks, which occur during the tensile process, can be healed during the post thermal treatment. In addition, RGES-10 composite possesses excellent heat propagation with a uniform temperature distribution. The steady-state temperature of the RGES-10 increases from 57 to 152 degrees C as the applied voltage increases from 10 to 20 V. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.