Nano Letters 2012-04-11

In situ synthesis of thermochemically reduced graphene oxide conducting nanocomposites.

Ok-Kyung Park, Myung Gwan Hahm, Sungho Lee, Han-Ik Joh, Seok-In Na, Robert Vajtai, Joong Hee Lee, Bon-Cheol Ku, Pulickel M Ajayan

Index: Nano Lett. 12(4) , 1789-93, (2012)

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Abstract

Highly conductive reduced graphene oxide (GO) polymer nanocomposites are synthesized by a well-organized in situ thermochemical synthesis technique. The surface functionalization of GO was carried out with aryl diazonium salt including 4-iodoaniline to form phenyl functionalized GO (I-Ph-GO). The thermochemically developed reduced GO (R-I-Ph-GO) has five times higher electrical conductivity (42,000 S/m) than typical reduced GO (R-GO). We also demonstrate a R-I-Ph-GO/polyimide (PI) composites having more than 10(4) times higher conductivity (~1 S/m) compared to a R-GO/PI composites. The electrical resistances of PI composites with R-I-Ph-GO were dramatically dropped under ~3% tensile strain. The R-I-Ph-GO/PI composites with electrically sensitive response caused by mechanical strain are expected to have broad implications for nanoelectromechanical systems.© 2012 American Chemical Society