Thermal conductivity and mechanical properties enhancement of CF/PPBESK thermoplastic composites by introducing graphene

Abstract Design and preparation structure/function integrated polymer composites with high thermal conductivities and ideal mechanical properties have attracted widespread attention. Nanoscale graphene were employed to fabricate the thermal‐structural integration graphene/carbon fiber/copoly (phthalazinone ether sulfone ketone) composites via solution prepreg followed by hot‐compression method. The thermal conductivity ( λ ) and mechanical properties were all improved with the formation of graphene thermally conductive self‐reinforced network. The thermal conductivity was increased to 1.057 W/(m K) by 89.8% higher than the pure carbon fiber composites. Moreover, the flexural strength (1878 MPa), compressive strength (907 MPa) and interlaminar shear strength (66 MPa) of graphene‐modified composites improved with 22.1%, 51.9%, and 24.5% than the conventional composites, respectively. Dynamic mechanical analysis has proved that graphene/carbon fiber/copoly (phthalazinone ether sulfone ketone) composites had excellent high temperature mechanical properties, which presented a great potential for structure/function integrated composites.