Macroscopic assembled, ultrastrong and H2SO4-resistant fibres of polymer-grafted graphene oxide

Nacre realizes strength and toughness through hierarchical designs with primary “brick and mortar” structures of alternative arrangement of nanoplatelets and biomacromolecules, and these have inspired the fabrication of nanocomposites for decades. However, to simultaneously solve the three critical problems of phase separation, low interfacial strength and random orientation of nanofillers for nanocomposites is a great challenge yet. Here we demonstrate that polymer-grafted graphene oxide sheets are exceptional building blocks for nanocomposites. Their liquid crystalline dispersions can be wet-spun into continuous fibres. Because of well-ordering and efficient load transfer, the composites show remarkable tensile strength (500 MPa), three to four times higher than nacre. The uniform layered microstructures and strong interlayer interactions also endow the fibres good resistance to chemicals including 98% sulfuric acid. We studied the enhancing effect of nanofillers with fraction in a whole range (0–100%), and proposed an equation to depict the relationship.

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