Development of waste polystyrene-based copper oxide/reduced graphene oxide composites and their mechanical, electrical and thermal properties
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1-2021
Abstract
The current study reports the effect of different wt. ratios of copper oxide nanoparticle (CuO-NPs) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as fillers on mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties of waste polystyrene (WPS) matrix. Firstly, thin sheets of WPS-rGO-CuO composites were prepared through solution casting method with different ratios, i.e., 2, 8, 10, 15 and 20 wt.% of CuO-NPs and rGO in WPS matrix. The synthesized composite sheets were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The electrical conductance and mechanical strength of the prepared composites were determined by using LCR meter and universal testing machine (UTM). These properties were dependent on the concentrations of CuO-NPs and rGO. Results display that the addition of both fillers, i.e., rGO and CuO-NPs, collectively led to remarkable increase in the mechanical properties of the composite. The incorporation of rGO-CuO: 15% WPS sample, i.e., WPS-rGO-CuO: 15%, has shown high mechanical strength with tensile strength of 25.282 MPa and Young modulus of 1951.0 MPa, respectively. Similarly, the electrical conductance of the same composite is also enhanced from 6.7 x 10(-14) to 4 x 10(-7) S/m in contrast to WPS at 2.0 x 10(6) Hz. The fabricated composites exhibited high thermal stability through TGA analysis in terms of 3.52% and 6.055% wt. loss at 250 degrees C as compared to WPS.
Keywords
Reduced graphene oxide, Copper oxide, Waste polystyrene matrix, Electrical conductance
Divisions
fac_eng
Funders
Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority[IF062-2019],Fundamental Research Grant Scheme from the University of Malaya[FP050-2019A],European Commission,Greek Ministry of Development-GSRT[T2EDK-02073]
Publication Title
Nanomaterials
Volume
11
Issue
9
Publisher
MDPI
Publisher Location
ST ALBAN-ANLAGE 66, CH-4052 BASEL, SWITZERLAND