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Browsing by Author "Fox, Ryan J."

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    Strong graphene oxide nanocomposites from aqueous hybrid liquid crystals
    Hegde, Maruti; Yang, Lin; Vita, Francesco; Fox, Ryan J.; van de Watering, Renee; Norder, Ben; Lafont, Ugo; Francescangeli, Oriano; Madsen, Louis A.; Picken, Stephen J.; Samulski, Edward T.; Dingemans, Theo J. (2020-02-11)
    Combining polymers with small amounts of stiff carbon-based nanofillers such as graphene or graphene oxide is expected to yield low-density nanocomposites with exceptional mechanical properties. However, such nanocomposites have remained elusive because of incompatibilities between fillers and polymers that are further compounded by processing difficulties. Here we report a water-based process to obtain highly reinforced nanocomposite films by simple mixing of two liquid crystalline solutions: a colloidal nematic phase comprised of graphene oxide platelets and a nematic phase formed by a rod-like high-performance aramid. Upon drying the resulting hybrid biaxial nematic phase, we obtain robust, structural nanocomposites reinforced with graphene oxide.