Liquid foams of graphene

Liquid foams are dispersions of bubbles in a liquid. Bubbles are stabilized by foaming agents that position at the interface between the gas and the liquid. Most foaming agents, such as the commonly used sodium dodecylsulfate, are surfactant molecules with linear or branched chain molecular structures. This thesis presents a new class of liquid foams made with a foaming agent having a sheet molecular structure. In these foams, air bubbles are encapsulated inside graphene shells. The shells have a concentric layered structure made of isophorone diamine modified graphene oxide sheets. The liquid foams of graphene were initially developed as an extractive step in the preparation of graphene-epoxy nanocomposites. Chapter 1 gives an introduction to polymer nanocomposites and graphene. Chapter 2 presents a novel processing method for graphene-epoxy nanocomposites. Chapter 3 deals with the structure, formation mechanism, stability and mechanical properties of the liquid foams of graphene. Chapter 4 reports on materials and methods. Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes the main conclusions of this work and proposes future directions for research.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Alcazar Jorba, Daniel

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Edwin L. Thomas.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75842

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/75842