I have recently synthesized PDMS-Graphene based nanocomposite film. In this experiment, I have mixed commercial graphene flakes with PDMS following the standard procedures. At the very end, I degassed the PDMS-Graphene Solution in vacuum chamber to remove air bubbles and then kept it in an oven for thermal curing and solidification of the solution to be a thin film. In this process, I am little bit confused about one phenomenon, which is "Graphene deposition problem during degassing". As I don't well about this, I need your help to understand this.
Can anyone please enlighten me with your valuable suggestions at which stage of this polymer-graphene nanocomposite fabrication it may occur and why?
Dear colleague,
can you give a more precise description of the effect ? where does the deposition of graphen occur and at which process stage does it happen. If you put a graphene containing solution under vacuum it may happen that the collapse of the air bubbles leads to release of a graphene containing aerosol which is then deposited somewhere.
best regards
Frank
Dear Professor Frank Kern
Thank you very much for your approach to answer my question. Actually, during my experiment, when I put the solution of PDMS-Graphene mixture in vacuum chamber to remove the air bubbles (created during the mixing and stirring process), I could not see any phenomenon like graphene deposition there. But is it possible that this phenomenon happens beyond my visibility? As you said collapsing of air bubbles can lead to release of graphene containing aerosol.
Thank you
Dear colleagues,
I believe that during the degassing of graphene in any solution, flakes tend to randomly orient in the surface. However, if proper percolation aspect is optimised then flakes can align with each other and maintain an uniform deposition.In this regard, phase transformation (Isotropic to nematic phase) plays a major role.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Physical Sciences
- Materials Science
- Materials
- Composites
- Nanocomposites