Mechanical and electrical property enhancement in exfoliated graphene nanoplatelet/liquid crystalline polymer nanocomposites

A liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) poly(benzoyl-1,4-phenylene)-co-(1,3-phenylene)], nanocomposite was prepared with exfoliated graphene nanoplatelets (GnP) to achieve both high mechanical modulus and electrical conductivity. The fabrication technique and the dispersion of nanoplatelets have been shown to be critical to achieve high mechanical modulus at low filler loading. A loading of only 1 vol.% of the GnP particles improved the modulus of the LCP nanocomposite by 25% and 55% at a loading of 5 vol.%. The electrical conductivity the non-conductive LCP improved to a very high value of 4.5 × 10−4 S/cm with the addition of 5 vol.% of GnP nanoparticles.