Preparation and thermo-mechanical properties of functionalized graphene/silicone rubber nanocomposites

Silicone rubber is widely used in electronic packaging materials. Electronic appliances have become miniaturized which need more outstanding packaging materials. Functionalized grapheme/scilicon rubber composites is one of the development to improve the performance of the silicone rubber. Graphite oxide (GO) was modified by KH-550, and then the modified graphite oxide was reduced by hydrazine hydrate to get functionalized graphene (FG). In order to get functionalized graphene /silicon rubber nanocomposites, FG was dispersed into 107 gum. The structure and morphology of both the nanocomposites and FG were characterized by FTIR, SEM, XRD and TG. The results show that KH-550 was bonded with GO, the layer of FG was expanded to 0.4nm. Compared with the pure silicon rubber, the initial decomposition temperature of all the functionalized graphene/silicon rubber nanocomposites were improved. Mechanical property tests show that the tensile strength of the nanocomposites with 0.7wt% FG are 2.46 MPa which increases by 198.39% compared with neat silicone rubber, and the elongation at break of composite increases by 171.89%, which is about triple of the pure silicone rubber. Thermal conductivity test shows that the thermal conductivity of the composites with 1.0wt% FG reaches 0.18 W /(m·K).