Recent progress in polymer/two-dimensional nanosheets composites with novel performances
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Polymer-based materials display intrinsic merits such as processability, scalability, flexibility, lightweight, superior voltage tolerance as well as low cost. Nanofillers with different properties are usually used as reinforcements to be embedded with polymers, eventually utilizing the properties of both, which is one of the most common methods to avoid some intrinsic disadvantages of the pristine polymers, for instance, low polarization and thermal conductivity [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]. In past decades, incorporating varied zero-dimensional (0D) spherical-nanoparticles into polymers has been reported intensively, fabulous properties of the composites are thus achieved [1,8]. Nevertheless, large amounts of nanoparticles are urgently required to obtain improved performances of the composites (e. g. high dielectric constant and thermal conductivity) [9], [10], [11]. The lifted cost, synthesizing difficulty and some dramatically decreased performances of the composites inevitably restricted their usage in practical applications. Compared with the 0D nanoparticles, one-dimensional (1D) nanowires or nanofibers with high aspect ratio present greater potential in constructing polymer composites with excellent performance, such as dielectric, thermal conductive and mechanical properties [12], [13], [14].
Two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets can be defined as a class of freestanding nanomaterials with a high ratio of lateral size to thickness. The specific structure, unique surface chemistry, and quantum size effect of 2D nanosheets endow them with exceptional anisotropic physicochemical properties, which are quite different to their bulk counterparts or nanoparticles [15], [16], [17]. Since the advent of monolayer graphene exfoliated from bulk graphite in 2004 [15], a serious of 2D nanosheets beyond graphene have been synthesized via various physical and chemical methods [18], [19], [20], [21], [22]. Graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), numerous transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), oxide or perovskite ceramics and transition metal carbides and nitrides (MXene) have been widely used as 2D reinforcement fillers for different polymers [4,[23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32]]. Taking advantages of the specific structure and excellent anisotropic properties of the embedded 2D nanosheets, innovative multifunction properties of the composites could be realized at relatively low filler loading, simultaneously maintain intrinsic flexibility of polymers, which made the composites much suitable application materials in some fields. A search comparation of the open publications about 0D, 1D and 2D nanofillers reinforced polymer composites in the past decade with Web of Science was conducted, and the results are shown in Fig. 1. Clearly, the research focuses and scientific interests of polymer science have shown faster increase in 2D nanosheets.
In designing the polymer composites, the appropriate selection of 2D nanosheets facilitate enhancing different performances of the composites, such as dielectric, thermal conductive, electromagnetic interference shielding or mechanical performances. In this scenario, proper size selection, surface modification or decoration and the arrangement design of 2D nanosheets would endow further property enhancement or multifunction with the polymers. For instance, the immense-sized h-BNNS filled polymer present higher thermal conductivity than the counterparts containing small-sized h-BNNS at identical loading; the surface modification of 2D nanosheets accelerates their dispersion in polymer matrixes [33]; uniform aligned and continuous 2D nanosheets would maximize various properties enhancement of polymers [24,34], such as electric or thermal conductive. However, the relationships between type, size, surface modification of 2D nanosheets and the relevant comprehensive properties have been rarely summarized.
In this review, the primary focus is settled on the novel performances of the polymer composites containing 2D nanosheets. This review starts from an overview and classification of the synthesizing methods of 2D nanosheets such as graphene, h-BN, TMDs, ceramics, MXene and metallic nanosheets. The dielectric, thermal management, electromagnetic interference shielding and mechanical performance of the 2D nanosheets filled polymer composites accompanied with their applications are then discussed, as shown in Fig. 2. This includes a comprehensive discussion of the effects of 2D nanosheets sizes, surface modifications, arrangements and filler-matrix interactions on these performances of the polymer composites. Finally, the brief conclusion and future perspectives on 2D nanosheets filled polymer composites are summarized. It is expected that this review could provide a comprehensive understanding about the mechanism of various novel properties of polymer composites in the context of different 2D nanosheets as additives, and bring a unified perspective for the next-generation polymer composites with excellent performances.
Section snippets
Intrinsic properties of 2D nanosheets
The preeminent properties enable 2D nanosheets to be the excellent reinforcements for polymer. The primary intrinsic properties of 2D nanosheets reviewed in this work are summarized in Table 1, including electrical, thermal and mechanical properties. Therein graphene, metallic nanosheets and MXene are excellent electric conductive 2D materials, in which the monolayer graphene is revealed to be the strongest material with modulus of 1 TPa and strength of 125 GPa. The MoS2 and WS2 nanosheets are
Electrical relevant properties of 2D nanosheets filled polymer composites
Polymer-based materials play a key role in advanced electronic devices and electric power systems [12,124]. Electrical-related performances, such as insulation, dielectric properties and finally energy storage performances of polymers would be implausibly changed with incorporating some 2D nanosheets.
Thermal management properties of 2D nanosheets filled polymer composites
Polymers are nearly thermally insulating due to their low thermal conductivity (λ) [2]. The heat generated by overload operation or partial discharge inevitably result the temperature rise of insulating materials, which would cause the loss of dielectric performance gradually. With the development of new materials and technology, the voltage level and the transformer capacity improved constantly and then the overheat problems became much more serious. For example, a considerable portion of
EMI shielding properties of 2D nanosheets filled polymer composites
With ever increasing developments of advanced techniques and widespread applications of electronic devices in military, wireless communications, electronics and medical instruments, electromagnetic interference (EMI) has become a serious issue [327], [328], [329], [330], [331]. Usually, the electronics devices are composed of highly integrated circuits and essentially rely on electromagnetic signals, EMI would be generated inevitably and cause their malfunctioning. Additionally, the
Mechanical properties of 2D nanosheets filled polymer composites
Excellent mechanical performance is another important property of polymers in practical engineering applications, such as aerospace, energy and biomedicine. The parameters in polymers mechanical performances mainly including Young's modulus (Y), tensile strength and fracture toughness. Improving polymer mechanical properties to achieve higher reliability and longer durability is one of the most critical and challenging aspects in the technical advancement. 2D nanosheets with unique planar
Summary and perspectives
Since the discovery of graphene, the prosperous 2D nanosheets are synthesized and widely employed as fillers to develop polymer composites. Despite the variations of sizes, thicknesses and surface defects of 2D nanosheets, the highly anisotropic properties originated from specific 2D structures endow their polymer composites with numerous novel and tunable performances. In this review, an introduction of 2D nanosheets preparation methods is summarized firstly. Subsequently, we have highlighted
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
Special thanks are given to Dr. Congcong Zhu and Dr. Dong Yue for the portion of data collection, special acknowledgements are given to Dr. Bo Su for helping polish the language. The authors are grateful to Dr. He Zhao, Dr. Yanpeng Li, Dr. Congcong Zhu, and Dr. Dong Yue for the proofreading of this work. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 52177017, 51777047 and 51807041), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2021M691998 and 2020T130156),
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