Chinese Journal of Polymer Science 2014, 32 (8), 975-985.

Gongqing Tang, Zhi-Guo Jiang, Xiaofeng Li, Hao-Bing Zhang*, Zhong-Zhen Yu*.

Simultaneous functionalization and reduction of graphene oxide (GO) is realized by refluxing of GO suspension with polyetheramine (D2000) followed by thermal treatment at 120 A degrees C. Compared to GO, the D2000-treated GO (GO-D2000) becomes hydrophobic, thermally stable and highly conductive with an electrical conductivity of 11 S/m, which is almost 8 orders of magnitude higher than that of GO. Due to the high conductivity and improved dispersion of GO-D2000,its epoxy nanocomposites exhibit a sharp transition from electricallyinsulating to conducting with a low percolation threshold of 0.71 vol%.With 3.6 wt% GO-D2000, the glass transition temperature of the epoxy nanocomposite is 27 K higher than that of neat epoxy.