In situ reduction of graphene oxide in an epoxy resin thermally cured with amine

Abstract

A procedure is proposed to prepare electrically conductive epoxy resin composites exploiting in situ reduction of graphene oxide (GOx) during the epoxy thermal curing in presence of amine. The optimum curing conditions are evaluated, and the efficiency of the reduction process of GOx induced by amine is confirmed by XPS analyses. The composites electrical resistivity show a decrease by increasing filler amount, and this can only be due to the partial restoration of the conductive sp2 structure occurred during thermal curing. This is a simple, easy-to-scale, one-step process to obtain electrically conductive epoxy cured materials by mixing the resin components and the well dispersible insulating GOx. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.