Simple route for the preparation of graphene/poly(styrene‐b‐butadiene‐b‐styrene) nanocomposite films with enhanced electrical conductivity and hydrophobicity

This paper reports a simple route for the preparation of graphene/poly(styrene‐b‐butadiene‐b‐styrene) (SBS) nanocomposite films employing a vacuum filtration method. Graphene is exfoliated well by an electrochemical procedure and homogeneously dispersed in the polymer matrix. The prepared nanocomposite films were characterized by XRD, Fourier transform IR (FTIR) spectroscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, AFM and SEM. Morphological studies showed that graphene formed a smooth coating over the surface of SBS. The increase in graphene concentration induces the wrinkling of graphene sheets at the composite surface which causes a further increase in surface roughness. The FTIR, Raman and XPS spectra of graphene/SBS nanocomposite films indicate the strong interactions between graphene and the polymer matrix. According to the XRD patterns, introducing SBS into graphene did not modify the graphene structure additionally, i.e. the crystal lattice parameters do not depend on SBS content in graphene/SBS nanocomposite films. The graphene/SBS nanocomposite films also exhibited better hydrophobicity due to the increased surface roughness and lower sheet resistivity (reduced 10 times) compared to exfoliated graphene. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry Graphene/poly(styrene‐b‐butadiene‐b‐styrene) films were prepared by the vacuum filtration method. An increase in graphene concentration causes the surface roughness to increase, which leads to better hydrophobicity and lower sheet resistivity.