Graphene nanoplatelets/barium titanate hybrid nanoparticles via ball milling for enhanced dielectric and mechanical properties of fluorosilicone rubber composites

Dielectric elastomers have been widely used in flexible actuators, artificial muscles, soft generators, etc. However, there are still challenges in fabrication of dielectric elastomers with enhanced dielectric and mechanical properties through simple and environmentally friendly compound method. In this paper, graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and BaTiO3 (BT) hybrid nanofillers are prepared by co-ball milling and then introduced into fluorosilicone rubber (FSR) to obtain composites with improved dielectric and mechanical properties. The X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscope results confirm the successfully exfoliation of GNP. With the increase of GNP content, the tensile strength and dielectric constant of FSR/GNP/BT nanocomposites both increase without the sacrifice of flexibility, while the dielectric loss tangent can be kept as low as 10−2 magnitude. The FSR-G7B30-BM composite exhibits a dielectric constant of 14.54 at 100 Hz, and the dielectric loss tangent of 0.016 at 100 Hz. Besides, the FSR-G7B30-BM composite displays the tensile strength of 1.19 MPa, and elongation at break of 332.12%. This work provides a facile strategy to design dielectric elastomers, which shows promising applications in modern electronic devices.