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Production of nanofibers by electrospinning of polymer-graphene
solutions
By Isaac Manabile
PhD Student
DST Chair in carbon materials and technology, IAM, University of Pretoria, Lynnwood road, Pretoria ,
0002
Supervisor: Prof N. Manyala
Introduction
Electrospinning or ‘‘electrostatic spinning’’ is a process in which nanofibers are generated by the application of electrostatic forces to a jetting polymer solution
Graphene is a two dimentional sheet of SP2-hybridised carbon
Polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating subunits called monomers
Properties of polymer nanofiber have been improved and enhanced using various nanofillers
Graphene is a multifunctional nanofiller that can enhance polymer fiber properties at a very small loading (Das, S et al., 2012)
Experimental
Materials: Expandable graphite, synthetic graphite and exfoliating and dispersing solvents/polymers
Two method have been employed to produce graphene through microwave irradiation
1. Commercial synthetic graphite suspension was irradiated with microwave to yield graphene.
2. Commercial expandable graphite was irradiated with microwave and dispersed
The resultant products were successfully incorporated in polymer fibers
Results cont
1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400 2600 2800 3000
0
500
1000
1500
2000 Syngraph-Graphene synthetic graphite
Inte
nsity (a.u
)
Raman shift cm-1
Raman spectra of synthetic graphite and synthetic graphite derived graphene
Conclusions
Graphene could be mass produced using established method and a relatively new method all involving microwave irradiation
Graphene produced by both method could be incorporated in to the polymer matrix during electro-spinning
Acknowledgements
The South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology
The National Research Foundation.
University of Pretoria
My supervisor and colleagues
Reference
1]. Kuilla, T., Bhadra S., Yao, D., Kim, N.H., Bose, S. Recent advances in graphene based polymer composites Progress in Polymer Science 35 (2010) 1350–1375
[2]. Malard L.M., Pimenta, M.A., Dresselhaus, G., Dresselhaus, M.S. Raman spectroscopy in graphene, Physics Reports 473 (2009) 5187
[3]. Chung D. D. L. Review Exfoliation of graphite, Journal of materials science 22 (1987) 4190 4198
[4]. Das, S., Wajid, A.S., Bhattacharia, S.K., Wilting, M D., Rivero, I V. and Green, M.J. (2012). Electrospinning of Polymer Nanofibers Loaded with Noncovalently Functionalized Graphene Journal of applied polymer science