TY - JOUR
T1 - Graphene Nanoplatelet Exoskeleton on Polyurethane Foam to Produce Flame-Retardant, Piezoresistive, and Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Surfaces
AU - Weldemhret, Teklebrahan Gebrekrstos
AU - Lee, Dong Woo
AU - Prabhakar, M. N.
AU - Iqbal, Aamir
AU - Koo, Chong Min
AU - Park, Yong Tae
AU - Song, Jung Il
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Materials Interfaces published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
PY - 2023/11/14
Y1 - 2023/11/14
N2 - Polyurethane foam (PUF)’s porous structure, light weight, flexibility, and low-cost properties make it useful in various cutting-edge technologies. However, time-consuming, costly, and complicated surface modification methods severely hinder its commercial applications. Herein, an ultrafast, simple, and cost-effective surface modification method based on the evaporation of a low boiling point solvent to prepare a multifunctional graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)-decorated PUF (GNP@PUF) is proposed. Due to the passive heat barrier of GNP sheets, the resulting sponge exhibits excellent flame retardancy by reducing the critical fire retardancy metrics, that is, peak heat release rate, total heat release, and total smoke release by 72%, 50%, and 81%, respectively. In addition, GNP@PUF can function as a piezoresistive sensor and electromagnetic interference (EMI)-shielding material. As a piezoresistive sensor, it exhibits a wide-compressive pressure (2.4–112 kPa)/strain (5–70%) range and ultra-fast response/relaxation time (48/35 ms), wide-stretching strain (5–100%) range, and it can detect minute human motions by being attached to different parts of the human body. Meanwhile, the composite foam displays good absorption-dominant EMI shielding performance (≈38 dB), possibly due to conductive dissipation and multiple reflections/scattering of EM waves inside the 3D conductive graphene network. This study provides a simple coating technique for developing multifunctional lightweight foam materials.
AB - Polyurethane foam (PUF)’s porous structure, light weight, flexibility, and low-cost properties make it useful in various cutting-edge technologies. However, time-consuming, costly, and complicated surface modification methods severely hinder its commercial applications. Herein, an ultrafast, simple, and cost-effective surface modification method based on the evaporation of a low boiling point solvent to prepare a multifunctional graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)-decorated PUF (GNP@PUF) is proposed. Due to the passive heat barrier of GNP sheets, the resulting sponge exhibits excellent flame retardancy by reducing the critical fire retardancy metrics, that is, peak heat release rate, total heat release, and total smoke release by 72%, 50%, and 81%, respectively. In addition, GNP@PUF can function as a piezoresistive sensor and electromagnetic interference (EMI)-shielding material. As a piezoresistive sensor, it exhibits a wide-compressive pressure (2.4–112 kPa)/strain (5–70%) range and ultra-fast response/relaxation time (48/35 ms), wide-stretching strain (5–100%) range, and it can detect minute human motions by being attached to different parts of the human body. Meanwhile, the composite foam displays good absorption-dominant EMI shielding performance (≈38 dB), possibly due to conductive dissipation and multiple reflections/scattering of EM waves inside the 3D conductive graphene network. This study provides a simple coating technique for developing multifunctional lightweight foam materials.
KW - electromagnetic wave absorbers
KW - flame retardant properties
KW - graphene nanoplatelets
KW - piezoresistive sensors
KW - polymeric foams
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85166986190&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/admi.202300461
DO - 10.1002/admi.202300461
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85166986190
SN - 2196-7350
VL - 10
JO - Advanced Materials Interfaces
JF - Advanced Materials Interfaces
IS - 32
M1 - 2300461
ER -