Click coupled stitched graphene sheets and their polymer nanocomposites with enhanced photothermal and mechanical properties

The chemically stitched graphene oxide (GO) sheets were obtained using a click chemistry reaction between azide-functionalized GO and alkyne-functionalized GO. The click coupled GO (GO-click-GO) sheets showed the largely increased electrical conductivity and near infrared laser-induced photothermal properties compared to the GO sheets, which result from formation of triazole ring as a bridging linker between the GO sheets. The polyurethane (PU) nanocomposites incorporating the GO-click-GO sheets exhibited enhanced mechanical properties of breaking stress and modulus than the GO/PU nanocomposites. The modulus of GO-click-GO/PU nanocomposites was higher than that of the GO/PU nanocomposites at the same filler loading of 0.1 and 0.5 wt%. The GO-click-GO/PU nanocomposites also showed a significantly improved photothermal properties compared to the GO/PU nanocomposites at the same filler loading. The click coupled stitched GO sheets in this study can be used as the superior reinforcing fillers for mechanically and photothermally high performance polymer nanocomposites.