Alumina-coated graphene nanosheet and its composite of acrylic rubber

•A method to coat graphene with a thin alumina layer has been presented.•The coated graphene disperses better and interacts stronger with the rubber matrix.•Great improvement in the composite’s tensile properties is observed.•The composite has improved thermal conductivity and is electrically-insulative. A graphene was coated with a thin alumina layer to prepare a novel nanosheet which had high thermal conductivity but low electrical conductivity. The nanosheet with minimal aggregation was prepared effectively by first coating it with aluminum tri-sec-butoxide in anhydrous dimethylformamide, followed by rapid calcination in an inert atmosphere after the hydrolysis of the alkoxide. The morphology observed by scanning electron microscopy and elemental mapping by energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry showed that the alumina layer coated on the graphene surface was uniform and ultra-thin. Thermogravimetry demonstrated that the uniformly coated alumina protective layer substantially improved the thermal stability of the graphene and that the electrically-insulative alumina layer effectively reduced the electrical conductivity of the graphene. The enhanced polar nature of surface as well as the increased surface roughness due to the coated alumina improved the dispersion of the graphene in the polar acrylic rubber matrix and the interaction at the interface. This led to an effective improvement of the thermal conductivity but marginal increase in electrical conductivity by the filler. Tensile modulus increased drastically to as high as 470% for the composite reinforced with the 5phr (about 2.5vol%) loading of the alumina-coated graphene.