ADVANCING ELECTROSPUN POLYMER-GRAPHITE COMPOSITES: STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVED PERFORMANCE

1 COETZEE Divan
Co-authors:
2 PEREZ AGUILERA Juan Pablo 1 WIENER Jakub 3 WALKER Luke 4 THEKISO Thabang 5 DE JONG Cristina
Institutions:
1 Department of Material Engineering, Faculty of Textile Engineering, Technical University of Liberec, Liberec, Czech Republic, EU, divan.coetzee@tul.cz
2 Institute of New Technologies and Applied Informatics, Faculty of Mechatronics, Informatics and Interdisciplinary Studies, Liberec, Czech Republic, EU, juan.pablo.perez.aguilera@tul.cz
3 Department of Clothing, Faculty of Textile Engineering, Technical University of Liberec, Liberec, Czech Republic, EU, luke.walker@tul.cz
4 Department of Nonwovens and Nanofibrous Materials, Faculty of Textile Engineering, Technical University of Liberec, Liberec, Czech Republic, EU, thabang.thekiso@tul.cz
5 Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA, cxd516@students.jefferson.edu
Conference:
17th International Conference on Nanomaterials - Research & Application, OREA Congress Hotel, Brno, Czech Republic, EU, October 15 - 17, 2025
Proceedings:
Proceedings 17th International Conference on Nanomaterials - Research & Application
Pages:
40-45
ISBN:
978-80-88365-29-7
ISSN:
2694-930X
Published:
27th February 2026
Licence:
CC BY 4.0
Metrics:
4 views / 2 downloads
Abstract

Expanded graphite is considered a stepping stone to graphene because it can be easily exfoliated into graphene layers when forming composite materials. It therefore has the potential to significantly improve conductivity and mechanical properties in most composites, as shown in the literature. In its natural form, expanded graphite is unsuitable for electrospinning, so it was reduced in size through ultrasonication. AC electrospinning is preferred due to its high production rate and lower risk of particle settling, as it uses pumps instead of a slow-moving syringe. There was no significant improvement in electrical conductivity due to the dominant structural effects attributed to the spinning process, which resulted in increased moisture uptake. Enhancements can be achieved by adding a conductive polymer network that works in synergy with the expanded graphite, thereby overcoming the conductivity limitations attributed to moisture. This work also showed that at low loading, up to 10% uEG in PVA, there can be an improvement in mechanical properties; however, the addition of fillers generally resulted in a decrease in breaking strength and modulus of the materials.

Keywords: Expanded graphite, ultrasonication, electrospinning, nanocomposite, conductive composite

© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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