Effects of different parameters on thermal and mechanical properties of aminated graphene/epoxy nanocomposites connected by covalent: A molecular dynamics study

This paper is devoted to studying the thermal and mechanical properties of aminated graphene (AG)/epoxy nanocomposites connected by covalent bond using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The effects of crosslinking degree, mass fraction and functionalized graphene (FG) type on AG/epoxy nanocomposites are considered. The elasticity modulus (E), the glass transition temperature (T_g), the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and the interfacial energy (E_int) are also investigated. The MD simulation results indicate that, when the mass fraction of AG is between 1.2% and 3.1% and crosslinking degree reaches about 70%, the E, T_g, E_int and CTE of AG/epoxy nanocomposites are significantly improved compared with those of pure epoxy and graphene/epoxy nanocomposites. The reason is that AG not only possesses some excellent thermodynamic properties of graphene, but also has the function of curing agent to crosslink with epoxy monomer to form the carbon-nitrogen (C–N) covalent bond. A better interfacial interaction between nanoparticles and epoxy is essential in enhancing the thermal and mechanical properties of nanocomposite materials, which will provide a microscopic theoretical basis for the study of epoxy nanocomposites.