Improved dielectric properties of rGO/PDMS composites by incorporation of Ag nanoparticles

Polymer-nanomaterial-based flexible composites are the new generation hybrid materials that are prepared by incorporating conductive nanomaterials in different types of polymer matrices. A considerable amount of fundamental and industrial research efforts has been conducted to utilize hybrid polymer-nanomaterials composites for a variety of applications such as flexible and wearable electronic devices, sensors, energy storage devices, etc. Herein, we demonstrate the fabrication of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)-based hybrid flexible composites by incorporating different wt% of Ag-rGO nanomaterials by using a simple solution mixing process. For comparison, we have also prepared PDMS composites by incorporating different nanomaterials such as GO, rGO, AgNPs and AgNP-rGO. The structural analysis of the nanomaterials and PDMS composites was carried out by XRD, FTIR, and Raman spectroscopy which confirmed the distribution of the nanomaterials in the polymer matrix. Different analytical analysis results also indicated the interaction between the nanofiller-matrix through hydrogen bonding. The experimental results suggested that AgNPs play a vital role to prevent the restacking of rGO layers and dispersion of Ag-rGO nanomaterial in the PDMS matrix as compared to other types of nanofillers such as GO, rGO or Ag NPs. The dielectric properties studied revealed that Ag_rGO nanomaterial contributed to the improvement of dielectric properties and Ag_rGO/PDMS composites showed better improvement in dielectric properties than the other PDMS-based composites.