Structure, Mechanical and Electrochemical Properties of Thermally Reduced Graphene Oxide-poly (Vinyl Alcohol) Foams

Authors

  • Wenxiu Wang
    Affiliation

    School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallic Materials, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

  • Hui Xu
    Affiliation

    School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallic Materials, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

  • Jian Chen
    Affiliation

    School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallic Materials, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

  • Yuanfang Shen
    Affiliation

    School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallic Materials, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

  • Imre Bertóti
    Affiliation

    Institute of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

  • Xinli Guo
    Affiliation

    School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallic Materials, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

  • Xiangru Shi
    Affiliation

    School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallic Materials, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

  • Zuhair Agab Elsiddig
    Affiliation

    School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallic Materials, Southeast University, Nanjing, China; School of Mechanical Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Karary University, Khartoum, Sudan

https://doi.org/10.3311/PPch.11148

Abstract

Graphene oxide foams with a wide range of poly (vinyl alcohol) contents were synthesized by freeze casting, and then thermally reduced at 300ºC in argon atmosphere. Their thermal stability, microstructure, composition and chemical states of constituents, mechanical and electrical properties were investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, compressive testing and electrochemical analysis. The results indicated that the PVA content highly influenced the crystallinity and microstructure, resulting in different mechanical properties. After thermal reduction, not only graphene oxide was reduced to graphene, but also PVA was subjected to partial pyrolysis. With the increase of the PVA content, the intensity of the sp2 C-C bond decreased while the sp3 C-C bond increased. Although the mechanical properties decreased after thermal reduction, the composite foams still showed high cyclic structure stability up to 18 % compression strain. Meanwhile, the reduced foams exhibited high electrical conductivity. Applying as anodes in lithium ion battery, the initial discharge capacity for the foams can reach 1822 mA h g-1 and it remained more than 330 mA h g-1 after 50 cycles.

Keywords:

graphene, PVA, thermal reduction, mechanical properties

Published Online

2017-10-25

How to Cite

Wang, W., Xu, H., Chen, J., Shen, Y., Bertóti, I., Guo, X. “Structure, Mechanical and Electrochemical Properties of Thermally Reduced Graphene Oxide-poly (Vinyl Alcohol) Foams”, Periodica Polytechnica Chemical Engineering, 62(1), pp. 8–20, 2018. https://doi.org/10.3311/PPch.11148

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Section

Articles