Graphene at different scales to synergistically optimize the thermal and mechanical properties of CF/PPBESK composites

This paper examined the impact of graphene's different scales on carbon fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites' thermal and mechanical properties (CFRTPs). Experiments using a mixing design method with graphene content of large, medium, and small scales as variables, thermal conductivity (λ) and mechanical properties (flexural (F), compression (C), and tensile strength (T)) as response values. The thermal-mechanical properties of multi-component composites were analyzed and modelled to improve them. Graphene with different scales could effectively bridge and enhance heat flow transfer along the graphene thermal conductivity network, significantly improving the composite's thermal conductivity. It was verified that the optimized composites exhibited excellent thermal conductivity (λ = 1.329 W/m·K), 140.3 % higher than that pure composite. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of the optimized composites saw significant enhancements, with flexural strength, compressive strength, and tensile strength increasing by 18.9 %, 22.8 %, and 13.2 %, respectively. Moreover, the optimized composite's thermal properties and energy storage modulus were also notably improved.