The effects of molecular weight and chemical composition of polymer-grafted thermally reduced graphene oxide (TRGO) as low-profile additives (LPA) and tougheners for thermoset resins on the cured sample morphology, volume shrinkage characteristics, mechanical properties, and thermal conductivities for low-shrink unsaturated polyester resins (UP) after the cure at 110oC have been investigated. The TRGO was produced by placing the graphene oxide (GO) in a high-temperature furnace kept at 1050oC for 30 s, which was synthesized from natural graphites with average particle size of 2 to 15 mm by a modified Hummers method. These TRGO-polymers, which contained thermally reduced graphene oxide (TRGO) as the core and organic polymer as the shell, were synthesized by the Z supported reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) graft polymerization using S-Benzyl S'-trimethoxysilyl propyl trithio-carbonate (BTPT) as the couplable RAFT chain transfer agent (CTA). The grafted polymer as the shell structure of the TRGO-polymer was made from poly(butyl acrylate)-block-poly(methyl acrylate) (PBA-b-PMA) or PBA-b-poly(MA-co-glycidyl methacrylate (GMA)). Depending on the content of TRGO-polymer (0-0.5 wt%), molecular weights of grafted polymer (8000-30000 g/mol) and the molar composition of GMA (0-20 mol%) incorporated in the outer polymer shell of TRGO-polymer, the TRGO-polymer could lead to a reduction of cyclization reaction for UP resins during the cure, and the microgel structure during the cure would be less compact, and, in turn, be favorable for the decrease of intrinsic polymerization shrinkage after the cure. In this work, the effects of TRGO-polymer on the volume shrinkage characteristics, mechanical properties, and thermal conductivities of the styrene (St)/UP (MA-PA-PG)/additive ternary systems during the cure will be explored and related experimental results will be presented. The experimental results will also be explained by an integrated approach of measurements for the static phase characteristics of the St/UP (MA-PA-PG)/additive systems, reaction kinetics, cured sample morphology, and property measurements by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

Effects of molecular weight and chemical composition of polymer-grafted thermally reduced graphene oxide on the volume shrinkage, mechanical properties, and thermal conductivities for cured unsaturated polyester resins

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