In Situ Synthesis of Thermochemically Reduced Graphene Oxide Conducting Nanocomposites

Highly conductive reduced graphene oxide (GO) polymer nanocomposites are synthesized by a well-organized in situ thermochemical synthesis technique. The surface functionalization of GO was carried out with aryl diazonium salt including 4-iodoaniline to form phenyl functionalized GO (I-Ph-GO). The thermochemically developed reduced GO (R-I-Ph-GO) has five times higher electrical conductivity (42 000 S/m) than typical reduced GO (R-GO). We also demonstrate a R-I-Ph-GO/polyimide (PI) composites having more than 104 times higher conductivity (∼1 S/m) compared to a R-GO/PI composites. The electrical resistances of PI composites with R-I-Ph-GO were dramatically dropped under ∼3% tensile strain. The R-I-Ph-GO/PI composites with electrically sensitive response caused by mechanical strain are expected to have broad implications for nanoelectromechanical systems.