The discovery of radiation‐shielding materials remains a critical technology to enable long‐term space travel and extraterrestrial colonization. Hydrocarbon polymers, such as high‐density polyethylene (HDPE), are among the best radiation attenuators due to their rich H content and lightweight. Due to their simple chemical structure that lacks larger heteroatoms, HDPE is also resistant to numerous radiation‐induced degradation pathways that often limit the applicability of more sophisticated polymers. One drawback of hydrocarbon polymers is their inferior mechanical properties, such as tensile strength and impact toughness, relative to metals and other high‐performance polymer systems. In this report, we develop an alkylated reduced graphene oxide that is used as an additive to enhance the storage and tensile moduli of HDPE by 10–15% across the lunar temperature range. These additives outperform unmodified reduced graphene oxide by 30% due to better dispersion through the polymer matrix as observed by cross‐sectional scanning electron microscopy. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 60:86–94, 2020. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers

中文翻译：

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化学功能化的还原氧化石墨烯在航天领域的聚乙烯复合材料中作为添加剂

辐射屏蔽材料的发现仍然是实现长期太空旅行和地外定居的关键技术。烃类聚合物，例如高密度聚乙烯（HDPE），由于其丰富的H含量和重量轻而成为最佳的辐射衰减器。由于其简单的化学结构缺少较大的杂原子，HDPE还可以抵抗许多辐射诱导的降解途径，这些途径通常会限制更复杂的聚合物的适用性。碳氢聚合物的一个缺点是相对于金属和其他高性能聚合物系统，其机械性能较差，例如抗张强度和冲击韧性。在这份报告中，我们开发了一种烷基化的还原氧化石墨烯，可将其用作添加剂，以在月球温度范围内将HDPE的储存和拉伸模量提高10-15％。这些添加剂的性能优于未改性的还原氧化石墨烯，因为其在聚合物基质中的分散性更好，如截面扫描电子显微镜所观察到的那样，其性能优于未改性的氧化石墨烯30％。POLYM。ENG。SCI。，60：86–94，2020.©2019塑料工程师协会