Electrical and electrothermal de-icing performance for biodegradable graphene/polyhydroxyalkanoates and graphene/polylactic acid composites

The electrical and electrothermal de-icing performance of graphene/polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and graphene/polylactic acid (PLA) composites with different thicknesses were systematically compared and investigated.Graphene/PHA with 1 mm thickness shows a slightly lower electrical resistivity than graphene/PLA.However, the results are contrary for 0.1 mm-thick samples, likely due to poorer interfacial adhesion between graphene and PHA.Besides, all 0.1 mm-thick samples show higher electrical resistivity than 1 mm-thick samples, likely attributed to the alignment of graphene.The current-voltage curves of graphene/PHA exhibit nonlinear behavior with fluctuations, whereas all graphene/ PLA samples show linear behavior.This result enables the graphene/PLA to exhibit superior electrothermal stability than graphene/PHA.An excellent electrothermal performance is obtained for these composites.The temperature increases from -40.2 to 95 C within 17 s under 7 V.While these composites cannot be self-heated and utilized above 95 C, this is because the composites would undergo electrical breakdown when heated to temperatures above 95 C for 5~10 s.The composite can melt ice within 550 s at -40 C and within 447 s at -20 C.These findings suggest that graphene/PHA and graphene/PLA composites hold significant potential for de-icing applications.