Tunable Liquid Crystallinity of Graphene Oxide with Polymer Crystallization

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) can form liquid crystals in aqueous solution, which can be employed in many applications in material science. One of the most attractive applications is GO based polymer nanocomposites where GO function as an effective nanofiller in semicrystalline polymer matrix. Previous research showed that polymer can be crystallized onto GO surface and thus adding GO develops the polymer crystalline structures and changes the property of materials. However, less attention has been paid to how crystallizable polymers can alter the liquid crystallinity of GO. Herein, we show that GO LC can be correlated with polymer crystallization because polymers significantly reduce the liquid crystallinity of GO suspension when they are crystallized. Conversely, the liquid crystallinity of GO can be enhanced with high degree of polymer crystallization. The microstructure of GO LC was investigated with small-angle X-ray scattering and rheological experiments with controlled temperature sweep.