Thermally Conductive and Antistatic Properties of Silicone Rubber Reinforced by the Modified Graphene Oxide

Silicone rubber (SR)/vinyl-graphene oxide (vinyl-GO) nanocomposites were prepared through the hydrosilylation reaction of silicon hydrogen polydimethylsiloxane (H-PDMS) with vinyl polydimethylsiloxane (vinyl-PDMS), in which vinyl-GO was used as a nano filler. The thermally conductive and antistatic properties of the nanocomposites, and their tensile strength and thermal stability were evaluated. The thermally conductive and antistatic properties increased naturally when the nanocomposites had eight to nine parts of vinyl-GO. The addition of 9 parts of vinyl-GO increased the thermal conductivity to 0.44 from 0.17 W/m^-1·K^-1 of neat SR and the surface resistance value to 10⁸ from 10¹⁴ Ω of neat SR. Vinyl-GO is effective in improving the tensile strength and toughness of the nanocomposites. The tensile strength and elongation at break of the nanocomposites were much higher than that of neat SR, especially for 10 parts of vinyl-GO in the nanocomposite, and the tensile strength was 1.84 MPa and the elongation at break was 314.1%. Additionally, compared with neat SR, the nanocomposites had a much higher thermal stability. For eight parts of vinyl-GO in the nanocomposites, H-PDMS with the selected silicon hydrogen content and vinyl-PDMS with the selected vinyl content could offer an appropriate cross-linking degree that suits the character of GO. When the nanocomposite had eight parts of vinyl-GO, its scanning electron microscope exhibited a monolayer GO with folded, twisted, and local surface folds. However, there was a certain amount of multilayer aggregation of GO for 10 parts of vinyl-GO in the nanocomposite.