Strength and thermophysical properties of polylactide-few-layer graphene composites

Abstract Modification of polymer matrices with carbon nanomaterials is a common practice for producing strong and wear-resistant composites. However, carbon nanomaterials are still not widely used in industry due to low-throughput synthesis methods. In this work, the strength and thermophysical properties of a composite based on polylactide modified with few-layer graphene were studied. The introduction of few-layer graphene leads to increase the flexural strength, thermal conductivity and wear resistance of polylactide. Few-layer graphene was obtained by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis. This method is easily scalable and allows to obtain few-layer graphene from carbohydrates. The work discusses the properties of synthesized few-layer graphene and the mechanisms of its interaction with polylactide.