Organic-Inorganic dual modified graphene: Improving the dispersibility of graphene in epoxy resin and the fire safety of epoxy resin

Fire safety is very important in the application of epoxy resin (EP). To study the effect of fire safety, a new kind of double-modified graphene (F-RGO-CuMoO4) was synthesized in this work. Firstly, GO was modified with 3-Triethoxysilylpropylamine (KH550) through the amidation reaction between the amino and carboxyl group to obtain organic functionalized graphene F-RGO. Subsequently, CuMoO4 was introduced onto the surface of F-RGO by the electrostatic interaction. Then the prepared F-RGO-CuMoO4 was added into EP to prepare an EP composite. The TEM test results of the EP/F-RGO-CuMoO4 ultrathin section showed that F-RGO-CuMoO4 was well dispersed in EP, indicating that the dispersion of graphene in EP was obviously improved after double modification. In addition, F-RGO-CuMoO4 also effectively improved the fire safety of EP. Specifically, the total heat release (THR), peak heat release rate (PHRR), total smoke production (TSP) and smoke production rate (SPR) values of the EP/F-RGO-CuMoO4 composite were reduced to 33.4 MJ/m2, 504 kW/m2, 24.5 m2 and 0.27 m2/s, which were 43.7%, 59.9%, 62.3% and 66.7% lower than those of pure EP, respectively. The main fire safety mechanism of F-RGO-CuMoO4 was explored according to the char residue analysis. •The organic-inorganized dual modification graphene was obtained by a simple method.•The fuctionalization and reduction of graphene were achieved simultaneously.•The dispersibility of graphene in EP was improved by the organic-inorganized dual modification.•This simple treatment of graphene could expand its applications in polymers.