Manufacture and electromechanical characterization of highly conductive multilayer-graphene/polydimethylsiloxane flexible paper

Multilayer graphene (MLG) micro- and nanosheets have been investigated for use as nanofiller in polymer composite in order to obtain multifunctional materials with enhanced electrical conductivity and mechanical properties. In order to take advantage of the conductivity properties of MLG sheets, a large amount of nanofiller should be used. Although, increasing filler loading alters the mechanical properties of the composite because of serious filler agglomeration. It has been shown that a promising approach to realize electrically conductive light-weight composite is to incorporate an electrically conductive graphene paper (GP), obtained by vacuum filtration of a nanofillers suspension, into the polymer matrix. One advantage of infiltrating the GP with polymer is that the tensile modulus of the composite can be greatly improved as compared with either GP or neat polymer, without weakening the electrical properties of the highly continuous nanofillers network formed in the paper making process. In this work we present experimental results related to the fabrication process and the electromechanical behaviour of a free standing, highly-conductive MLG paper impregnated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).