Research On Condensed Tannins Functionalized Graphene And Its Application In Composite Materials

It has been reported that graphene has many unique and fascinating properties,such as good conductivity,good mechanical strength etc.which make it widely used in nanoscale electronic devices,energy storage,composite materials and other fields.In this article,we successfully fabricated two kinds of multifunctional graphene-based composites where the main components are condensed tannins functionalized graphene and epoxy natural rubber.The main idea of this work can be summarized as follows:?1?We firstly successfully prepared low-defect exfoliated graphene-based soft nacre-like composite film with superb elasticity and electrical conductivities.Herein,we demonstrate a large-scale exfoliation process of graphite by incorporation of Myrtan Condensed Tannins?MCT?,a natural polyphenol product extracted from bark of Arbutus.A large number of aromatic and phenolic hydroxyl groups from MCT could successfully produce large quantities of exfoliated graphene suspension with very few defects in water.Furthermore,via vacuum-assisted layer-by-layer self-assembled method,the soft and elastic exfoliated graphene-based nacre-like composite film was prepared using epoxy natural rubber?ENR?latex as crosslinking agent.The flexibility and stability of this composite film are greatly enhanced.?2?MoS₂?or graphene?-based composite films with superb flexibility were successfully fabricated and can be used for high-efficiency steam generation by heat localization with the effective utilization of simulated solar energy.The flexible MoS₂-based composite film was prepared using epoxy natural rubber?ENR?latex as crosslinking agent.The preformed MoS₂ composite material was deposited on the cellulose paper to fabricate a double-layer structure material for further steam-generation experiments.Under the ambient solar intensity of 4.7kW/m²,the water evaporation rates were measured to be 0.486 kg·m^-2·h^-1.The elongation at break of the final material could be as high as 227.1%.We believe such a high flexible composite film could be widely used in seawater evaporation system.Most importantly,most of the raw materials used in this work are low cost natural products which is environmental-friendly and also suitable for production in large quantities.