(367i) Self-Sensing Polymer Composite Containing a Continuous and Periodic Graphene Monolayer

Embedding the capability of self-sensing to polymeric materials provides tremendous opportunities for developing smart materials with highly important applications. However, a facile method that can introduce this capability to different polymers beyond strain sensing remains elusive. Here, we report a strategy of incorporating a continuous graphene sheet as an electric probe into polymer matrices for developing self-sensing composites. The resulted composite demonstrates impressively high conductivities of 290 S/m at a graphene volume fraction (V_G) of 0.00068, a good electrical recovery at a cyclic elastic strain of 30% and a strain-sensing upper limit of 80%. Moreover, the glass transition, melting, and photodegradation process of different polymers can also be monitored in situ, and the corresponding glass transition temperature (T_g) and melting point (T_m) can be calculated. Our work paves the way for the development and application of novel self-sensing polymer composites with high sensitivity and versatility based on two-dimensional (2D) materials.

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