Mechanical characterization of functional graphene nanoplatelets coated natural and synthetic fiber yarns using polymeric binders

Abstract

Fabrication of electrically conductive yarns (glass, flax and polypropylene fibers) coated with graphene nanoparticles (GNP) were characterized for their mechanical properties and compared with their electrical properties. The composites were produced with the use of polymeric binders (epoxy resin and thermoplastic starch) and two different dip-coating methodologies were developed to create the coating layers. Technique-1 involved coating of binder and then GNP layer whereas Technique-2 had a mixture of binder and GNP in the predetermined ratio, which was coated on the yarns. The mechanism of adhesion varies or influences on a number of factors such as the nature of the fiber surface, coating method and effective binder. Tensile properties of the yarns were measured by an appropriate standard, and the highest tensile strength was noticed with epoxy-based glass fiber samples as 222 MPa followed by flax fiber samples as 206 MPa. The composites of starch-based showed poor mechanical performance compared to those of epoxy ones. This was due to poor adhesion between the surface and starch layer (interphase) where the Van der Wall’s force was quite low. Electrical conductivity, glass fiber yarns with epoxy binder were identified to have the highest electrical conductivity of 0.1 S.cm−1 among other samples.