New publication in Polymer, Infusion of Graphene Quantum Dots to Modulate Thermal Conductivity and Dynamic Mechanical Properties of Polymers

Joel R Seibert, Ozgur Keles, Jun Wang, and Folarin Erogbogbo, “Infusion of Graphene Quantum Dots to Modulate Thermal Conductivity and Dynamic Mechanical Properties of Polymers,” Polymer, Accepted. 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032386119309954?via%3Dihub

Abstract 

Graphene quantum dots are small fragments of graphene that may be advantageous to transferring properties to polymers because of their small size, molecular like interactions, surface chemistry and ability to overcome dispersibility challenges in composite formation. Here, we begin the first thermal conductivity study with graphene quantum dots by revealing the thermal and mechanical properties of composites made by infusing graphene quantum dots into epoxy. We found that graphene quantum dots that have the capability to improve the toughness of epoxy by 260%, increase the thermal conductivity by 144%, increase the glass transition temperature by 10%, increase the storage modulus by 9%, and decrease damping by 45%. We anticipate graphene quantum dots infusion to be a starting point for creating more sophisticated polymer composites.