J. Mater. Sci. Technol. ›› 2019, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (9): 1989-1995.DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2019.05.027

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Preparation of highly conductive graphene-coated glass fibers by sol-gel and dip-coating method

Minghe Fangab, Xuhai Xiongac, Yabin Haoab, Tengxin Zhangab, Han Wangab, Hui-Ming Chengabd*(), You Zengab*()   

  1. a Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
    b School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Shenyang 110016, China
    c Liaoning Key Laboratory of Advanced Polymer Matrix Composites, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang 110136, China
    d Shenzhen Geim Graphene Center, Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, Shenzhen 518055, China
  • Received:2019-03-06 Revised:2019-05-06 Accepted:2019-05-07 Online:2019-09-20 Published:2019-07-26
  • Contact: Cheng Hui-Ming,Zeng You
  • About author:

    1 These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract:

In order to fabricate highly-conductive glass fibers using graphene as multi-functional coatings, we reported the preparation of graphene-coated glass fibers with high electrical conductivity through sol-gel and dip-coating technique in a simple way. Graphene oxide (GO) was partially reduced to graphene hydrosol, and then glass fibers were dipped and coated with the reduced GO (rGO). After repeated sol-gel and dip-coating treatment, the glass fibers were fully covered with rGO coatings, and consequently exhibited increased hydrophobicity and high electrical conductivity. The graphene-coated fibers exhibited good electrical conductivity of 24.9 S/cm, being higher than that of other nanocarbon-coated fibers and commercial carbon fibers, which is mainly attributed to the high intrinsic electrical conductivity of rGO and full coverage of fiber surfaces. The wettability and electrical conductivity of the coated fibers strongly depended on the dip-coating times and coating thickness, which is closely associated with coverage degree and compact structure of the graphene coatings. By virtue of high conductivity and easy operation, the graphene-coated glass fibers have great potential to be used as flexible conductive wires, highly-sensitive sensors, and multi-functional fibers in many fields.

Key words: Graphene, Glass fiber, Sol-gel, Dip-coating, Coating, Electrical conductivity