Can in situ thermal reduction be a green and efficient way in the fabrication of electrically conductive polymer/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites?

In situ thermal reduction of GO is a simple and green approach in the preparation of polymer/graphene nanocomposites, and has received increasingly attention. However, its efficiency is usually low due to the limitation of thermal reduction temperature used. In this paper, well dispersion of graphene oxide (GO) in polycarbonate (PC) matrix was firstly prepared via solvent-exchange and coagulation. Then the GO was in situ thermal reduced efficiently within a few minutes in PC solid matrix, taking the advantage of PC processing at high temperature (280 °C). The presence of well-dispersed isolated reduced graphene oxide (RGO) single sheets in the PC matrix had been demonstrated. The reduction of graphene oxide was well confirmed. As a result, the nanocomposites exhibit a low percolation threshold of ∼0.21 vol% and a conductivity of 0.041 S m−1 at a RGO content of 1.09 vol%. Meanwhile, the mechanical properties and thermal stability of PC are also significantly enhanced by adding RGO.