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Updated: Sep 22, 2025

Strain Sensing Based on Multiscale Composite Materials Reinforced with Graphene Nanoplatelets
Published on: November 7, 2016
Distortion of Chain Conformation and Reduced Entanglement in Polymer-Graphene Oxide Nanocomposites
M P Weir1, D W Johnson2, S C Boothroyd2
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Sheffield, Hicks Building, Hounsfield Road, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We study the conformations of polymer chains in polymer-graphene oxide nanocomposites. We show that the chains have a reduced radius of gyration that is consistent with confinement at a solid interface in the melt, as is expected for well-dispersed, high aspect ratio nanoparticles that are much larger than the polymer coil size. We show that confinement of the polymer chains causes a corresponding reduction in interchain entanglements, and we calculate a contribution to the plateau modulus from the distorted polymer network via a simple scaling argument. Our results are a significant step forward in understanding how two-dimensional nanoparticles affect global material properties at low loadings.
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