Cryomilling application of graphene to improve material properties of graphene/chitosan nanocomposites

In this study, graphene powders were crushed to smaller particles via cryomilling. The cryomilled graphene powders were characterized by XRD, Raman spectroscopy, TGA, and SEM. Tensile tests were performed on raw graphene/chitosan and cryomilled graphene/chitosan nanocomposites in order to investigate the cryomilling effect of graphene on the tensile properties of their corresponding nanocomposites. The results showed that cryomilling enhanced the dispersion, graphitic characteristics, and thermal stability of the graphene powders. Cryomilling graphene also showed that their corresponding chitosan nanocomposites had significant improvement in tensile properties compared to raw graphene/chitosan nanocomposites.