Glass Fibre Reinforced Epoxy Composites Modified with Graphene Nanofillers: Electrical Characterization

Abstract

Composites with improved electrical properties created new pathways in electrical engineering industries. In this work, electrical studies conducted on continuous unidirectional E-glass fibre-reinforced epoxy composites modified with three different graphite oxide fillers are discussed. The three different fillers are (i) graphite oxide (GO), (ii) exfoliated graphite oxide (EGO), and (iii) reduced exfoliated graphite oxide (rEGO). Incorporation of GO fillers exhibited significant improvement in the dielectric characteristics of the composites, where it showed 42% enhancement in breakdown strength values. Dielectric constant measurements of GO-filled composites have also demonstrated considerable enhancement in the values where the fillers promoted interfacial and dipolar polarization phenomena in the material. On the other hand, in the case of EGO and rEGO fillers, conducting nature induced from graphitic structure had significantly reduced the dielectric properties of their composites.