Improved properties of chemically modified graphene/poly(methyl methacrylate) nanocomposites via a facile in-situ bulk polymerization

The nanosheet of graphene was chemically modified by long alkyl chain for enhanced compatibility with polymer matrix and graphene/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) nanocomposites with homogeneous dispersion of the nanosheets and enhanced nanofiller-matrix interfacial interaction were fabricated via a facile in-situ bulk polymerization. The nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy and thermogravimetry. The results showed that the graphene nanosheets were fully exfoliated in PMMA matrix and the thermal and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites were significantly improved at low graphene loadings. Large shifts of 15°C in the glass transition temperature and 27°C improvement of onset thermal degradation temperature were achieved with graphene loading as low as 0.07 wt%. A 67% increase in tensile strength was also observed by the addition of only 0.5 wt% graphene. The method used in this study provided a novel route to other graphene-based polymers.